Restrictions on foreign investment - some context

Winston Peters is pushing for more controls on inbound foreign direct investment as part of his coalition negotiations with Labour and with National. Fran O'Sullivan's piece in the Herald suggested that New Zealand's regime is pretty laissez-faire.

Really?

Here's the latest OECD figures. They tally the restrictiveness of rules around foreign direct investment. New Zealand is the most restrictive country in the entire OECD. It is the seventh most restrictive country of the 62 countries they surveyed.

Here's what you get if you plot countries from most restrictive on the left to least restrictive on the right.

The Philippines is the world's most restrictive country, closely followed by Saudi Arabia and Myanmar. Then come China and Indonesia. Jordan is a bit more restrictive than New Zealand, but only barely. Then come India, Malaysia, Tunisia and Mexico, followed by Laos. 

If New Zealand is laissez faire on FDI, I guess Japan's a bunch of anarcho-capitalists and Luxembourg... we don't have a word for whatever that is.