Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Development : Lessons from Six Emerging Economies This study examines the link between FDI and development in six dynamic non Member economies: Argentina Brazil Chile Indonesia Malaysia and the Philippines. These countries have all adopted different policies towards FDI in the past but to a great extent they are all converging on a more open approach. This greater openness and the overall economic reforms of which FDI liberalisation is but one part will provide a more fertile environment in which to reap the potential benefits from FDI. FDI can play a key role in improving the capacity of the host country to respond to the opportunities offered by global economic integration a goal increasingly recognised as one of the key aims of any development strategy. In an environment made more competitive by a decade of economic reforms many restrictions to FDI in these host countries are at best ineffective and at worst counter productive.