Marriott Hotels is the top tourism investor
Tourism projects were dominated by US-based hotel operator Marriott International, which ranked as the third most active investor in 2021. The company recorded a total of 98 FDI projects in 2021, a marginal increase of 4% when compared to data from 2020.
Asia-Pacific was the main destination market for Marriott (40 projects), followed by Central America and the Caribbean (17), and central and eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (14). China was the leading country destination for the company winning 20 FDI projects, followed by Japan and Turkey with nine projects each.https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2UOfX/1/
When compared to Marriott’s investments in 2020, Japan, which was the leading destination country, experienced a decline of 47%, from 17 to just nine projects in 2021. Spain which ranked third for Marriott in 2020 has seen its number of investments drop from seven to two, while Mexico’s rank (fourth) and number of projects (six) has remained the same for both years. Of the 98 projects recorded for Marriott International only four were expansion investments, the remaining 94 were greenfield FDI projects.
FDI newcomer Cloudflare top for communications FDI
US-based Cloudflare, a content delivery network and DDoS mitigation company, placed second for outbound FDI, investing in 98 projects in 2021. The company, a newcomer to the top ten, primarily invested in internet points of presence, with 95% of its FDI in this field. Cloudflare also made several investments in wired and wireless telecommunications activities and one software-based investment.
China was the leading recipient for Cloudflare’s investments attracting a 36% market share of its outbound FDI, followed by Brazil with 33%. Bangladesh, India, and Australia ranked third to fifth with a combined market share of 8%. In April 2021, Cloudflare also announced it had opened a new regional headquarters in Paris, France creating 30 new jobs.
Communications and media was the third largest FDI sector in 2021. Data centre investments increased by a quarter, with the bulk of projects destined for Germany, India and China.
A global surge in 5G projects saw wired and wireless communications become the leading subsector, with the majority of investment going into northern and western Europe. Hutchison 3G UK Holdings, Telia Norge and Hrvatski Telekom were the largest investing companies in this subsector by project numbers, with a combined market share of almost 40%. Sweden, Hong Kong and the UK were the largest source markets for wired and wireless investment, while the US accounted for 28% of all communications and media sector FDI projects.
Teleperformance tops list for job creation
France-based Teleperformance, a provider of customer acquisition management and technical support was the leading investor in terms of the number of jobs created by a company. In 2021 it launched its biggest-ever recruitment drive and announced plans to hire 50,000 employees in India by the end of 2022. The company will hire for customer management and non-voice interaction roles as it continues to invest in process automation, AI and robotic process automation to cater to an increase in demand across different verticals, particularly life sciences and new age companies.
In an interview with The Hindu newspaper in August 2022, Anish Mukker, CEO of Teleperformance India, said: “With our cloud campus model, which enables individuals to work from anywhere with cutting edge security, access to our wide reach across Fortune 1,000 companies, India will play a strategic role in the growth of Teleperformance globally. To support this expansion Teleperformance in India expects to be 100,000 people-strong in the next year and a half.”
The company also announced hiring plans in other regions in 2021, including an expansion of its facility in Barranquilla, Colombia. Teleperformance announced it would hire a further 9,000 staff in 2021 to complement the existing 15,000 roles the company created when it established operations in the Colombian city in 2020. The company further announced plans to open a delivery centre and subsequently hire 600–800 employees in Guyana.
While FDI is expected to face further challenges in 2022, these large hiring campaigns and the continued aggressive expansion of companies such as Amazon and Tesla show that foreign investment will continue to grow in certain sectors.