studies, provided that they were done entirely on a voluntary basis and did not involve any evaluation by the Commission. A few delegations expressed reservation with regard to the Centre's taking up that task. 17. In his concluding remarks, the Executive Director expressed his satisfaction at the broad consensus emerging from the discussion about the role of transnational corporations in international development, which reflected the positive change in the perception of the foreign direct investment process. While recognizing the absolute growth of foreign direct investment inflows to developing countries, he observed that the declining share of those countries in world-wide inflows was an issue of concern because that was a sign of relative disintegration from the world economy; and many least developed countries received hardly any foreign direct investment. He agreed that regional integration of developed market economies and changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union bore the potential for long-term positive effects for the world economy, including developing countries; potential short-term adverse implications should not be overlooked. Those developments should be a subject of further studies. Finally, the Executive Director said that the proposal to undertake studies to enable the Commission to play a role in assessing the impact of foreign investment on national economies clearly fell within the mandate of the Commission and that such assessments should be entirely voluntary. Action taken by the Commission 18. The Commission took note of the report of the Secretary-General on recent developments related to transnational corporations and international economic relations (E/C.10/1990/2). It requested the Secretariat to prepare for its seventeenth session another report on recent developments related to transnational corporations and international economic relations, taking into account the comments made by the delegations at the sixteenth session . The report should also address the implications for foreign direct investment and related forms of international 
**Analysis**
The text discusses the role of transnational corporations in international development, foreign direct investment, and the potential impact on national economies. It seems to be focused on economic and development issues, rather than other categories.

**Category**
International trade, Economic development