Investment is the engine that expands productive capacity, modernizes infrastructure, creates jobs, and drives progress toward development and climate goals.

Yet developing economies face an investment shortfall of historic proportions. Even as development needs rise, investment growth has slowed to about half its pace in the 2000s. Public investment alone cannot fill this gap. Private investment must play the leading role in reigniting growth, creating jobs, and supporting the transition to a more sustainable and resilient future.

This book presents the World Bank’s most comprehensive assessment of investment in emerging and developing economies. It examines why investment matters, why it has stalled, and what it will take to revive it. The analysis highlights that countries that have successfully triggered investment booms combined sound macroeconomic frameworks with reforms that improved the business climate, strengthened governance, and mobilized private capital.

History shows that when investment surges, economies grow faster, job creation accelerates, and poverty declines more rapidly. Reversing today’s slowdown is within reach — through credible fiscal and monetary policies, well-targeted public investment that attracts private capital, and stronger international cooperation to mobilize finance at scale.

Reigniting investment is not just a national priority — it is a global imperative.

At this online seminar, the co-authors of the book, Amat Adarov, Senior Economist, Dana Vorisek, Lead Economist, and Hayley Pallan, Economist, Prospects Group presented the main points. 
 

Speakers

Amat Adarov　
Senior Economist, Prospects Group, World Bank

Dana Vorisek　
Lead Economist, Prospects Group, World Bank

Hayley Pallan
Economist, Prospects Group, World Bank