Grab gets drab

"Yet little attention has been paid to how these transactions are happening and whether the investors are following the same processes and procedures as normal land lease deals involving foreign individuals or companies. The World Bank Group’s Investment Climate Advisory Service is aiming to fill this gap with a new set of indicators called the Investing Across Borders project. The project will include an indicator on Accessing Land that will help us understand how easily foreign investors can access land they are interested in leasing and what protections are in place both for investors and for the country and its citizens. The Accessing Land indicator as well as the rest of the IAB data should be available in early 2010, and with it, we’ll be able to give a better answer the question I started with: global land grab or good business?" (Thanks Marcy)