Hopes are high that the a more business-friendly India will emerge under the stewardship of new prime minister Narendra Modi. But the FDI fortunes of India’s states look to remain disparate until policies and regulations are better coordinated.

In developing a port with a free-trade area just outside Havana, the Cuban president, Raúl Castro, appears to be implementing policies that will further unlock the Caribbean island to foreign investment.

Private investment in the US rail network is showing that transferring freight movements from road to rail can be both economically and environmentally beneficial in the long term, but applying this logic in Europe, where the rail network has been fragmented by years of state control, is proving more difficult. 

The ambitious Basque Y high-speed rail link connecting Spain's Basque Country with the rest of Europe will open up opportunities for investors in the region, improving freight transport and reducing costs. 

Africa's notoriously inadequate infrastructure is widely considered to have long been holding the region back from realising its economic potential. Hope is on the horizon, however, as national governments increasingly embrace private sector projects and regional developments.

Natural resources, namely oil, have fuelled Middle Eastern economies for the past few decades, but the region's location at a meeting point between East and West also gives it a distinct advantage in the logistics field, something many of its countries are cashing in on.

Investors are looking beyond Romanian capital Bucharest to cities such as Timisoara, Cluj Napoca, Brasov and Constanta, and finding growing economies, skills and business capacity.