The economic content of the term “investment attractiveness”

The article is devoted to the definition of the economic content of the concept of “investment attraction” and the study of the criteria of investment attractiveness. We conducted a retrospective analysis and systematization of the various definitions of “capital”, “investment”, “investment attraction”, given by domestic and foreign authors. A generalized definition of capital is given: “capital’ is an objective economic category, which offers a business entity to carry out its investment activities in order to expand the scope and value of the business, making a profit and improve its investment attractiveness. It is emphasized that the concept of “investment” is broader than the concept of “capital”: it is investment in capital with varying degrees of liquidity for the purpose of subsequent increments and increase the value of the business entity. The author defines the main characteristics of the investment. A distinction of the term “investment attractiveness” of similar concepts, “market attractiveness”, “investment climate”, “investment image”, “investment potential” is made. It is concluded that the investment attractiveness is a component of the investment climate, which is characterized by an objective character and eliminates the subjectivity. Based on the understanding of different approaches to the study of the investment attractiveness and define its criteria the author offers a brief description of the concept of “investment attractiveness”: investment attractiveness is an independent economic category – a set of internal and external factors, as well as qualitative and quantitative indicators of the investment potential of any of the levels of the economic system – state, regional, sectoral, level of economic entities. Evaluation of investment attractiveness at all levels of the economic system is carried out in the current period (current situation analysis) and forecast period (investment market forecast).