Attractiveness of India and China for Foreign Direct Investment: A Scoreboard Analysis

China and India are the two leading countries in terms of attracting foreign direct investment. These two countries differ in a number of characteristics, which are important for FDI. Therefore the questions arise which general investment conditions are of importance for companies that are investing abroad, and which factors make India and China attractive as business locations for foreign companies? After a presentation of stylized facts about China and India and a discussion of location theories and location factors, we develop a scoring method to evaluate general investment conditions. Eight of the member states of the European Union in Central and Eastern Europe are used as a reference group to test the scoreboard rating tool, before it is applied for China and India.