If you travel towards the mountains along the French Riviera, just north of the coast, among the villas, olive trees, and plants that flower year-round is the Sophia Antipolis Technopark, home to the Business Angels. They flew here from all over the world – people who believe in an idea and giving it life.

The American Marilyn Davison lives in a massive complex, located by some seemingly magical set of circumstances on Angels’ Bay in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, not far from the Sofia Antipolis Technopark. “My husband and I were both invited to join this community. My husband worked for a small American company that has launched activities in Europe. He founded the first company, whose employees have grown over time from one person to 13. Later he worked with distributors all across Europe and the Middle East, even once going to Russia. We started in Brussels, then moved to Nice, then from Nice to Paris, then once again returned to Mougins, and finally settled here in Villeneuve-Loubet.”
“Wonderful people! Great project!” is how Marilyn Davison talks about everyone with whom she has had a chance to work. There are angels all around us, we just don’t notice them. Many such communities exist – in Nice, for example, there is a Mediterranean community, and in Paris there are many as well.

The global economic recovery is taking longer than expected. Economic instability and political uncertainty in various regions around the globe have led to economic indicators that have been slow to return to pre-crisis levels and the positive trends that emerged over the past couple years are trailing off. In their final report on the state of global flows of foreign direct investments for 2012, UNCTAD recorded an 18% decline (to $1.35 billion) with further forecasts rather restrained. Experts are talking about the possibility of raising the bar to $1.8 billion by 2015 on the condition of reducing the existing risks and restoring investor confidence in the medium term.

Russian authorities are constantly declaring that attracting foreign investments into the regions is one of the main objectives of the government’s economic policy. But judging by the recently released published Russia’s official statistics agency, Rosstat, in 2012 investors remain cautious about Russian prospects and are extremely reluctant to invest directly in infrastructure projects. The flow of foreign direct investments for 2012, according to figures from the Russian government agency Rosstat, totaled $18.6 billion, which was only 1.4% more than the previous year. At these rates it will take at least a decade to reach pre-crisis levels.

The gap between the world’s richest and the poorest countries is growing rapidly, and most poor countries have recently experienced a sharp increase in population. This is the conclusion reached by the World Organization of Creditors (WOC), by comparing the latest figures for GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita.

Of the 185 countries for which the IMF provides data, we chose the 15 richest by GDP adjusted for PPP per capita, the 15 poorest countries by this indicator, and added the BRICS countries for comparison. The total was 35 states, sorted by GDP, accumulated FDI in the country, volume of foreign debt, and other economic indicators. In addition, we analyzed social indicators for each state, such as population growth, unemployment, literacy, etc.
Among the top 15 countries with the highest wealth, seven are European, including Luxembourg (No. 2 on our list by GDP [PPP] per capita), Norway (No. 4), Switzerland (No. 9), as well as Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Sweden. Also at the top of the list are the oil powers – Qatar (No. 1), Brunei (No. 5), and the UAE (No. 8). Also among the 15 leaders are Singapore, Hong Kong, and such developed countries such as the USA, Canada, and Australia.

Moscow, Kiev, Astana, Almaty, Minsk and Baku – which of these cities is the most developed and suited for living? In anticipation of the IV Astana Economic Forum, the WOC analytic service compared the capitals using several criteria.
WOC research examines the level and quality of life in Moscow, Kiev, Astana, Minsk, and Baku. Almaty is also included in the list of cities as Kazakhstan’s largest city in terms of GRP and population. Analysts put these six political and financial centers from several CIS countries under the microscope.

Global foreign direct investment flows in 2012 fell by 20%. FDI in developed countries dropped a third compared with 2011, whereas it fell by only 3% in developing countries. Vice President of the European Investment Bank Anton Rop discussed the reasons behind these trends with the World Economic Journal.