Key actors in the investment arena, including high-level policy-makers from around the world, will be meeting to discuss Foreign direct Investment and development in a globalizing world economy at a Global Investment Forum. The meeting is being convened by UNCTAD in Geneva today ahead of the WTO ministerial meeting in Singapore in December, says a press release.

Ministers, business executives. heads of intergovernmental Dodies as well as experts from academic institutions and nongovernmental organizations will participate in this one-day event, the latest example of the determination of the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Rubens Ricupero, to involve elements of civil society and the business community to a greater extent in UNCTAD's activities. The Forum will be chaired by Alexander Erwin, Minister of Trade and Industry

of South Africa and President oi UNCTAD IX. the most recent quadrennial Conference of UNCTAD. Organized during the annual session of the Trade and Development Board. UNCTAD's governing body between conferences. the Forum will be open to the press.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDD is at record levels ($315 billion in 1995) and transnational corporations are moving at an unprecedented pace to build global business structures These trends, outlined in UNCTAD's World Investment Report 1996, released on 25 September, have significant implications for the evolution of international policy arrangements on investment. The Forum has thus been designed as an opportunity for all parties involved to engage In a critical examination of the issues. The participants have been actively Involved in shaping international Policy arrangements for FDI.