Global foreign direct investment dropped in 2002 for the second year in a row. Only two countries were able to buck the trend: China and Mexico. Both of them continued to attract the confidence and money of multinational enterprises that are both desperate for growth and eager to cut costs. The Aztec middle-power — the world’s 10th largest economy — captured more than 30% of Latin America’s foreign direct investment as South America suffered one of its worst years in decades. Can Mexico continue to attract FDI and reach the audacious goal of $20 billion per year by 2006, as President Vicente Fox predicts? The simple answer to this complicated question is “not likely”.