ABSTRACT
In view of the minor benefit that the introduction of a multilateral investment guarantee scheme can be expected to produce for the world economy and for development efforts, neither the major capital-exporters nor the capital-importers will be prepared to give the proposal wholehearted and lasting support. As capital importers in the Third World would then have sufficient scope to channel direct investment according to their own objectives, it should be possible to obtain the necessary international consensus for the benefit of the world economy. The most sensible alternative to a multilateral guarantee scheme lies in a multilateral investment protection agreement as a complement to the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes. The objections to a multilateral investment guarantee scheme also apply in the main to regional schemes, so that the latter would not offer a suitable alternative.
