addition, a number of sectors, such as media, transport, electricity and telecom tend to be viewed as strategic assets, which are less likely to be open for foreign investment. Thus, within the broader category of services, tourism is globally most open, followed by waste management, recycling and healthcare insurance. Overall, tourism (accommodation services) and manufacturing are the most open sectors. Algeria and Thailand are the only economies from the 103 economies covered by _FDI Regulations_ database that imposes restrictions in the accommodation services sector.

The most restricted sector among the 32 covered is media with 49 economies imposing some kind of restriction on television broadcasting, and 32 in the newspaper-publishing sector. The second most restricted sector is international passenger air transport. Other sectors that are often restricted are telecom and electricity. Economies tend to close or allow only a minority foreign equity ownership position in the sectors mentioned above due to political (including the commercial reasons of maintaining revenues generated by state-owned monopolies) and national identity reasons, among others.

While many economies restrict foreign investment in strategic sectors outright by law, other economies seem to have _de facto_ restrictions in place. These restrictions can come in the form of difficulties in obtaining operating licenses or uncompetitive markets. For instance, Bangladesh, the most open economy to foreign ownership in South Asia region (of the 32 sectors for which the data was collected, only forestry exhibits full ownership restriction), has categorized other sectors as “controlled industries”.<sup>6</sup> These are industries which may require an approval from the government, and for which the government may restrict foreign ownership. In addition, several strategic sectors are dominated by state-owned enterprises operating as monopolies (i.e., electric transmission and distribution, freight rail transport, port operations, and fixed-line telecommunications infrastructure and services). Colombia, Nigeria and Georgia, which are also considered to be some of the most open economies worldwide, do not have foreign firms currently operating in all their sectors.

|**Table 1. Restrictio**|**ns on foreign e**<br>|**quity own**<br>|**ership acro**<br>|**ss sectors and**<br>|**regions**<br>|<br>|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Sector Group**|**Eastern**<br>**Europe &**<br>**Central Asia**<br>**(21*)**|**High-**<br>**income**<br>**OECD**<br>**(17)**|**Sub-**<br>**Saharan**<br>**Africa**<br>**(24)**|**Latin**<br>**America &**<br>**Caribbean**<br>**(15)**|**South**<br>**Asia**<br>**(6)**|**East Asia**<br>**& Pacific**<br>**(11)**|**Middle**<br>**East &**<br>**North**<br>**Africa**<br>**(9)**|**Global**<br>**average**<br>**(103)**|
|**Agriculture and**<br>**Forestry**|98%|100%|98%|96%|78%|80%|81%|90%|
|**Mining and Oil &**<br>**Gas**|99%|100%|98%|92%|95%|87%|71%|92%|
|**Manufacturing**|100%|100%|100%|100%|95%|100%|94%|98%|
|**Electricity**|96%|93%|95%|80%|80%|83%|80%|87%|
|**Waste**<br>**management and**<br>**water supply**|98%|97%|98%|93%|92%|85%|78%|92%|
|**Transport**|93%|89%|93%|95%|80%|75%|64%|84%|
|**Telecom**|99%|95%|86%|98%|94%|76%|80%|90%|
|**Media**|77%|85%|75%|77%|57%|52%|53%|68%|
|**Financial Services**|98%|100%|91%|98%|89%|89%|85%|93%|

> 6 The National Industrial Policy 2010 (NIP 2010) states that the “government will fix the equity rate of local-foreign investors for any joint venture project in the controlled sector”.

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