Unlocking the playing field for emerging markets

by | August 13, 2013

Originally published at CNBC | August 13, 2013

Since the 1980s, emerging markets have opened up to investment from the rest of the world. The combination of China’s reforms under Deng, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of dictatorships in Latin America, meant a raft of enactments of new investment-friendly legislation.

Yet in the past decade, momentum has slowed.

With strong economic growth, and concerns over foreign firms repatriating profits away from domestic economies, emerging markets’ zeal for foreign direct investment (FDI) reform fell away. According to the UN, at the turn of the millennium, just 6 percent of new investment-related policies increased restrictions and regulations. This has since risen to 25 percent.

Filed Under: Economics

About the Author

Alex is the co-founder of Jackson Hole Economics, a non-profit research organization which provides analysis of key topics in the political economy, and develops actionable ideas for how sustainable growth can be achieved

Alex is also the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Novata, a mission-driven and technology-powered public benefit corporation designed to improve the process of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) diligence in the private markets. Backed by a unique consortium, which includes the Ford Foundation, S&P Global, Hamilton Lane and Omidyar Network, Novata has created an independent, unbiased and flexible platform for the private markets to more consistently measure, analyze and report on relevant ESG data.

With two decades of experience in the financial and non-profit spaces, Alex has led a number of sustainable growth and transformation efforts. He is a former CEO of GAM Holdings and Chief Investment Officer of UBS, and also served as the Chief Financial Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he created the foundation's strategic investment fund.

Alex was a White House Fellow and an assistant to the Secretary of Defense. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Franklin Resources, Inc. (Franklin Templeton), a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Chair of the Advisory Board of Project Syndicate and a board member of the American Alpine Club. Alex also writes regularly for various news outlets and is the author of Babu's Bindi and The Big Thing: Brave Bea, both children's books.

Alex holds a JD from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and a BA from Princeton University.

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