India 4th major host of greenfield FDI projects during 2004-2015: Report

India was the fourth major host of greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) projects and eight major host of cross-border M&A deals between 2004 to 2015, according to a research paper released on Wednesday.

The paper, titled 'Future of Regional Cooperation in Asia and Pacific', pointed out that India received 8,004 greenfield FDI projects and 4,918 counts of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals between 2004-2015.

According to the paper, posted on the Asian Development Bank (ADB) website, the US received the most greenfield FDI projects between 2004 to 2015, followed by China and the UK.

"With 13,308 counts, the US is the largest recipient of greenfield investment accounting for almost 10 per cent of the total counts. Among the developing countries, the PRC, India, the Russian Federation, Brazil, Mexico, Viet Nam, Romania, Thailand, and Malaysia are major recipients of greenfield investment," it said.

The paper said while the People's Republic of China (PRC) has already emerged as one of the world's largest and most important economies, India is likely to do so over the coming decades.

"The evolution of these two major economies and powers will pose huge challenges to the region, particularly for smaller economies, which are likely to be impacted by potential economic, financial, or political spillovers and likely contagion," it said.

In Asia, economics and geopolitics -- particularly the rise of India, ASEAN and even more critically China -- highlight that the nature of global market integration has changed, with significant implications for crisis prevention and management, the paper noted.

"As we learned in the Asian financial crisis, Asia must take steps to secure its own success and to protect itself from financial crises, from whatever source they derive. COVID-19 is likely to drive this forward," it added.