01/02/06
New Premises of the WAIPA Secretariat
The WAIPA Secretariat would like to inform you that as of 1 January 2006, WAIPA is located in new premises, in the International Environment House 2, situated, 9 chemin de Balexert, 1219 Châtelaine-Geneva, Switzerland. New telephone and fax numbers will be communicated to you in the next issue of the newsflash, to be sent out mid-February.
The new email address of the Association is: info@waipa.org.
Mrs. Abel, Assistant, and Mrs. Campanelli, WAIPA Administrator, can be reached at the following email addresses: isa-beatrice.abel@waipa.org and karine.campanelli@waipa.org.
Welcome to new WAIPA members from Canada, Georgia, Korea, Serbia and Montenegro!
We are pleased to announce that the Investment, Science and Technology Branch (IIT) from International Trade Canada , the Georgian National Investment and Export Promotion Agency (GNIEPA), the Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone Authority, as well as the Montenegrin Investment Promotion Agency (MIPA) have become members of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies. The Association currently has 187 members and covers 148 countries worldwide.
Do You Want to Host a WAIPA Workshop?
In order to plan the WAIPA workshop schedule 2006, we would be very grateful if WAIPA members, interested in specific topics of workshops, could send their proposals to the WAIPA Secretariat. Also, WAIPA members who are interested in hosting such workshops during the year 2006 are kindly requested to indicate this to the WAIPA secretariat, at the following e-mail address: info@waipa.org
The WAIPA World Investment Conference 2006, 8-9 March 2006, Geneva, Switzerland
The eleventh session of the WAIPA World Investment Conference 2006 will take place in Geneva , Switzerland , on 8-9 March 2006, in parallel with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Commission on Investment, Technology and Related Financial Issues.
The theme of the conference will be: "What Tomorrow Brings: The rise of New Players and New Forms of FDI". The official opening session will start at 10:00 , on 8 March 2006 . Three plenary sessions will take the form of interactive debates between panelists and the audience and moderated by a well-known media person. They will discuss "New Actors take the Stage, Growing Importance of Developing Countries in FDI" and "New Forms and New Methods of FDI". The first session, a joint high-level session with the UNCTAD Commission, entitled "What tomorrow brings: More Competition! More Benefits?", will be chaired by the Chairperson of the Commission.
At the end of the first day, the 8th of March, a special interactive session, entitled "Meet the consultants", will be organized between the audience and the consultants. And on Thursday 9 March, from 14:30 to 15:30 , before the topical workshops, a session will be devoted to presentations of projects, research, conferences and other activities by WAIPA partners and WAIPA friends. Topical workshops, sponsored by partners of WAIPA, will follow. An IBM-PLI workshop on "Why and How should IPAs Benchmark their Locations?", a MIGA workshop on "Effective Investor Outreach: New Sectors, New Approaches", an UNCTAD workshop on "Improving Governance in Investment Promotion, Tools and Instruments", as well as a WAIPA workshop on "Best Practices in Promoting New Forms of FDI: Case Studies in the US" led by AWS Corporation will be organized.
WAIPA, in collaboration with MIGA, will award 3 member IPAs in recognition of their best practices in the following subject: "Meeting Investor Information Needs". MIGA will present the Awards on 8 March, during the Conference and before the Gala Dinner, where the trophies will be awarded.
For more information and registration, please contact Mrs. Isa-Beatrice Abel at the WAIPA Secretariat: isa-beatrice.abel@waipa.org
Big Success for the WAIPA-ProInvest Workshop 2006!
The WAIPA-ProInvest Workshop, which will be led by Oco Consulting Ltd and will precede the conference, is already full. The first WAIPA workshop in 2006, entitled "Promoting Partnerships between ACP and EU IPAs", will take place from 6 to 7 March 2006 in the premises of the Palais des Nations, in Geneva . The objectives of the workshop are to provide the opportunity in forming partnerships between IPAs from Asia-Pacific-Caribbean (ACP) countries and those from Europe , or between IPAs from ACP countries and others from the same region, as well as to provide the unique opportunity for executives and senior managers of these IPAs to interact and establish personal working relationships.
For further information, please contact Mrs. Isa-Beatrice Abel at: isa-beatrice.abel@waipa.org
Call for contributions to WIR 2006
In 2006, UNCTAD's World Investment Report will look specifically at the implications of FDI by developing country TNCs. A growing number of economies outside the developed countries are emerging as significant sources of FDI. In order to find out how this trend is affecting the activities of investment promotion agencies (IPAs), all WAIPA members are encouraged to respond to the questionnaire that UNCTAD has recently sent out. If you have not yet received the questionnaire, or if you would like to know more about the survey, please contact Mr Dong Jae Lee, dong.jae.lee@unctad.org, or at +41 22 917 5604.
The World Investment Report 2006 will be available in October 2006.
UNCTAD Investment Brief, n°1, 2006: Sharp Rise in FDI Driven by M&As in 2005
New UNCTAD estimates show that global FDI flows rose to US$897 billion last year. This time the upswing affected all sub-regions. Developed countries attracted $573 billion, up by 38 per cent from the previous year. Record levels were noted for FDI into Africa and developing Asia . Overall, the share of developing countries was about 30 per cent. Increased levels of FDI were mainly linked to mergers and acquisitions. The number of greenfield projects declined in 2005.
The full Investment Brief can be downloaded on: www.unctad.org and www.waipa.org |
