Globally an enormous investment boom is under way. In nominal terms gross capital formation has more than doubled worldwide since the trough in 2001 and will reach 14,000 billion US-dollar in 2008. Simultaneously the flow of investment has gradually shifted toward emerging markets and developing countries which now attract 38 percent of global capital formation – up from 23 percent in 2001. The ratio of investment-to-GDP has increased in the emerging economies from 24 to 29 percent – in Asia even to 39 percent, a leap by 10 percentage points. The increase in per capita investment in these regions has been equally remarkable. This global investment boom can be explained mainly by world-wide economic growth and high revenues from natural resources in a number of the emerging countries.