The Relationship Between Information & Communication Technology and Foreign Direct Investment Inflow to Africa

Abstract

This paper examined the relationship between the increasing Information & Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in Africa and foreign direct investment inflow to Africa using panel data sourced from ITU and WDI over 17 years (1998-2014). The paper applies both the fixed-effect and difference-in-differences models. The results indicate that there is a positive correlation between FDI inflow and ICT level in the host country.  The surge in ICT infrastructure in 2009 has substantially increased the FDI inflow to Africa. This increase in FDI inflow was more in the countries that have access to the sea than the countries that have no access to the sea. In other words, the average scale change in FDI inflow to the countries with no access to the sea is smaller than the countries with the coastline.

Study on the Impact of Host Country ICT Development Level on China's OFDI Efficiency

“…The rapid development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), represented by the Internet, has profoundly changed the way companies operate, their daily activities, and the way they do business. Research by scholars has found that ICT is an important influencing factor in the choice of FDI location [1][2][3][4][5] . Currently, there are more studies on the factors influencing the efficiency of OFDI in China, but little literature has focused on the impact of the level of ICT development in the host country on the efficiency of OFDI in China.…”