The world is seeing a return to growth in greenfield FDI, according to the latest findings from the fDi report, but while some areas surge ahead, others are seeing hesitant growth or even a decline.

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.

The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 left huge parts of the country's capital, Port-au-Prince, in ruins. Now, with the rebuilding process in full flow, the government is looking to foreign companies and foreign tourists to help move this recovery up to the next level.

Ecuador, for so long an underperformer in Latin America when it came to FDI, is experiencing an uptick in its investment fortunes. Its minister for foreign trade tells fDi how the country's growing middle class, new tax laws and links with trade partners are behind the turnaround.

As a family-owned company that has been producing paper for almost 100 years, Burrows Paper Corporation may have its roots in the past, but its sights are firmly fixed on the future, as it looks to emerging markets in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

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.