WAIPA members who will be attending the WAIPA World Investment Conference on 9-10 March 2005, in Geneva, Switzerland, Palais des Nations, are kindly requested to register if they have not already done so, by completing the registration form available on the WAIPA website: www.waipa.org.
We encourage you to register as soon as possible in one of the six hotels of the Manotel Group, located in the heart of the city between the lake and the United Nations, as this year the WAIPA Conference will be taking place on the week of a major convention in Geneva, and it will be difficult to guarantee hotel bookings after 14 February 2005. Special rates have been negotiated with the Manotel Group and reservations can be made by sending appropriate registration forms, available on www.waipa.org/pdf/AnnualConferences/hotels_map.doc, directly to Manotel. We thank you all in advance for your consideration.

Site Visit - Friday 11 March 2005: Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS)

SGS is the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With 39’000 employees, SGS operates a network of about 1’000 offices and laboratories around the world. Originally founded in 1878 in Rouen as French grain shipment inspection house, the Company was registered in Geneva as Société Générale de Surveillance in 1919.
The core services offered by SGS can be divided into three categories: Inspection services, testing services and certification services.
A site visit will be organized on Friday 11 March 2005, after the WAIPA World Investment Conference to be held on 9-10 march 2005.

IBM Workshop:
"Strategic Marketing and Image Building for IPAs", 7- 8 March 2005, Geneva - Switzerland, Palais des Nations

The first World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) workshop in 2005—Strategic Marketing and Image Building for IPAs, will take place from 7 to 8 March 2005 in Geneva, Switzerland. The workshop is being sponsored by IBM-Plant Location International (Belgium), and will be hosted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), at Palais des Nations, the seat of United Nations' European office. The workshop will last two days and feature sessions on Investor Location Decision Making, Designing and Implementing an Effective Marketing Strategy, Image Building, and Investor Development or After Care Services, among others. The workshop will also utilize a number of exercises and case studies, focusing in particular on China and more generally on Asia.

This workshop is offered free-of-charge to WAIPA members in good standing, and is available by registration on a first-come-first-serve basis. The number of participants is limited; so interested WAIPA members are encouraged to apply as soon as possible in order to guarantee their seat at the workshop. For more information and registration, please contact Isa-Beatrice Abel at WAIPA Secretariat, Palais des Nations, Room E 10083, 1210 Geneva Switzerland, Tel.: +41 22 907 17 30, Fax: +41 22 907 01 97, e-mail: Isa-Beatrice.Abel@unctad.org.

For more information, please contact Marko Stanovic at Tel. +41 22 907 4888, marko.stanovic@unctad.org

Publications

FDI to Least Developed Countries Remains Minuscule

Foreign direct investment (FDI) flows rebounded in 2004, after three consecutive declines, with UNCTAD estimating a 6 percent increase to US$612 billion globally, and a 48 percent increase to US$255 billion in the case of developing countries. While FDI to the least developed countries (LDCs) of the world (as defined by the United Nations) increased in line with recent trends, it remains minuscule compared with the size of global flows or even flows to developing countries. This is not necessarily discouraging, since these countries’ economies are small and the size of FDI they receive is significant in relation to it. Furthermore, there is considerable divergence in the structure of their economies, with some natural resource-rich countries receiving considerable FDI, albeit concentrated in one sector. So, while in relation to the size of their economies LDCs are not faring badly, they are still lagging behind other developing countries in both their ability to attract such investment and in terms of its impact on their own development when such investment does not complement or link to the domestic sector.
For further information, UNCTAD´s Least Developed Countries Report provides a comprehensive and authoritative source of socio-economic analysis and data on the world's most impoverished countries. Each Report contains a statistical annex, which provides basic date on the LDCs. See www.unctad.org.
http://topics.developmentgateway.org/fdi

Canadian Development Report 2004: "Investing in poor countries: Who Benefits?"

In this seventh edition of the Canadian Development Report, international experts explore the impact of private foreign investment on the poorest developing countries. This volume explains why private foreign investment and its relationship to other forms of financing for development (aid, foreign debt, domestic savings) has been the focus of attention within the context of NEPAD, Monterrey, the Millennium Development Goals and the Global Compact.
CDR 2004 poses key questions related to PFI: Can private foreign investment help poor countries finally escape the poverty trap? Will foreign investment largely replace foreign aid, or can they work together to magnify the impact on growth and development? What is the impact of PFI on the environment, on conflict, on public-private partnerships, and on policies related to privatization?
In addition, the 2004 CDR includes up-to-date statistics and analysis related to social and economic indicators of developing countries along with statistics regarding the Canadian government’s trade-related involvement with developing countries.

The Chapters of the CDR 2004 are available for viewing at:
www.nsi-ins.ca/ensi/publications/cdr/2004/index.html
To purchase a copy online please go to: www.renoufbooks.com

http://topics.developmentgateway.org/fdi

OECD Presentation:
Foreign Investment and Regional Integration in Southern Africa

This presentation, made at an OECD Seminar titled "How to Reduce Debt Costs in Southern Africa" and held in Johannesburg on 25-26 March 2004, examines the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the SADC region, the composition of capital flows, regional economic integration and its relationship to FDI.

For more information, please see: www.oecd.org