02/06/06

Welcome to Development Counsellors International (DCI) as a new WAIPA Associated Member!

We are pleased to announce that Development Cousellors International (DCI) located in new York has become a new associated member of WAIPA. The Association covers now 149 countries worldwide with 196 members.

La Baule World Investment Conference, 6-8 June 2006, La Baule, France

On June 6, 7 and 8 in La Baule – France, for the fourth year running, 700 leading international figures will meet at La Baule in western France to analyze challenges, exchange views and present proposals to European political leaders for making European regions more attractive and more competitive. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Europe, building a hub for the world” and will highlight Europe's strengths in playing a leading role in the world economy, in science, finance, culture and politics.

The 2006 edition will welcome Russia, as a special guest country as well as Egypt and European countries such as Hungary and United Kingdom. Emilie-Romagna (Italy) and Vest Region (Romania) will also be guests regions. The conference programme includes a host of officials and business leaders, among them José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission; Mikhail Fradkov, Prime Minister of Russia; Anne Mulcahy, Chairman and CEO of Xerox; Tadashi Okamura, CEO of Toshiba; and Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive of BT.

An ANIMA-IDAL-WAIPA Regional Seminar on Investment Promotion and Investor Servicing: New Trends in IPA Strategy, 19-22 June 2006, Beirut, Lebanon

The FDI market is very competitive and is undergoing considerable changes. The emergence of new players and new forms of FDI are leading IPAs to adapt their strategies. Benchmarking and promoting locations in target sectors, as well as managing aftercare programmes are becoming more and more important. The ANIMA regional seminar, organized in cooperation with IDAL and WAIPA on 19-22 June in Beirut, will cover best pratices in investment promotion and investor servicing and will a focus on: Setting up national goals, Developing the marketing strategy and sector prioritization, Top tips for communications strategy, E-marketing in investment promotion, CRM systems and IPA performance evaluation and case studies on agrofood and services.

The participants' profile required is Mediterranean IPA Management Executives. Please note that this workshop is limited to 6 WAIPA participants.

For further information, please contact: nadia.bibi@afii.fr or elsa.vachez@afii.fr

An UNCTAD-WAIPA Regional Workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean on Policy Advocacy and Investment Promotion, 19-21 July 2006, Cuzco, Peru

UNCTAD's advisory study The World of Investment Promotion at a Glance revealed that by the year 2000 close to 80% of surveyed IPAs had conducted some form of policy advocacy. A more recent study by FIAS, The Effectiveness of Promotion Agencies at Attracting Foreign Direct Investment , found that policy advocacy was the single most effective function that IPAs could perform but that it received the fewest resources. Reporting mechanisms to the highest political levels and private sector participation increase IPA visibility, credibility and effectiveness in policy advocacy. However, IPAs need a systematic and proactive approach to make full use of these advantages. UNCTAD and WAIPA have organised this training workshop to provide participants with the tools to analyse policy problems and effect policy changes that will attract FDI in support of sustainable development.

The training materials draw primarily from best practices--and at times not-so-best practices--around the world. Each case study is followed by questions and exercises intended to elucidate the process of effective policy advocacy.

For additional information, please visit: www.unctad.org/asit

Contacts: natalia.guerra@unctad.org , tel: +41-22-9075651 or isa-beatrice.abel@waipa.org , tel: +41-22-7972663

The 10 th China International Fair on Investment & Trade (CIFIT), 8-11 September 2006, Xiamen, China

WAIPA and the Ministry of Commerce of P.R. of China (MOFCOM) will jointly sponsor a Roundtable Conference for International Investment Promotion Agencies during the 10 th China International Fair on Investment & Trade (CIFIT), which is to be held from 8 to 11 September 2006, in Xiamen, southeast China. The theme and the exact date of the Roundtable Conference will be confirmed soon. Meanwhile, an exhibition area especially for WAIPA members will be set up in the CIFIT exhibition hall.

The annual CIFIT is sponsored by MOFCOM and co-sponsored by UNCTAD, UNIDO, IFC and WAIPA. With its themes of Promoting Inward and Outward Investment, CIFIT is the biggest, most important and most influential event featuring in internationalized investment promotion held in China. Over 12, 000 visitors and delegations from 125 countries and regions attended the 9th CIFIT in 2005. Governments and enterprises from 66 countries and regions introduced over 1,000 investment projects and set up booths, and 7 countries and regions sponsored Pavilion Day activities. The 10th CIFIT will continue providing unparalleled global trade and investment services through exhibition, matchmaking symposia, policy consultation, and commercial activities coupled with timely FDI policy and information releases. China’s Ministry of Commerce will also hold International Investment Forum and dozens of seminars on hot investment issues, with distinguished speakers from the Chinese government, foreign governments, and international economic organizations, as well as Nobel Prize winners and well-known economists.

In order to support WAIPA members to participate in CIFIT and to strengthen WAIPA’s influence in the international investment promotion activities, MOFCOM will provide 25 free booths especially for the IPAs from developing countries; 75 half-price booths (900 USD/3mX3m) will be offered for other WAIPA members and their respective domestic enterprises. By participating CIFIT, WAIPA members will have the opportunity to establish communication channels with domestic and foreign government officials, principals of the IPAs and representatives from business associations and enterprises, so as to further expand their investment promotion business.

We warmly invite our members to participate in the 10 th CIFIT in China and please register for the Roundtable conference and apply for reserving the Exhibition booths by the end of June. Please note that the registration for the free booths will be on a first come first served basis.

For further information, please contact: isa-beatrice.abel@waipa.org

Annual IEDC Meeting, 17-20 September 2006, New-York City, US – FREE PARTICIPATION FOR WAIPA MEMBERS !

To be successful in today’s rapidly changing global economy, communities must have lightning fast reflexes and the ability to communicate and collaborate across town, across the country and around the world. Like never before, the currency of economic growth is ideas. To tap into the new growth sectors and remain competitive, cities and towns require a new level of creativity and innovation.

The international Economic Development Council (IEDC) and the New York Host Committee recognize the implications of this new, flat world and are creating a world class economic development event. The Annual Conference agenda will present three days of in-depth analysis in five major tracks: “The Cutting Edge of Economic Development: Building Community Through Taking Risks”, “Attracting, Training and Retaining a Skilled Workforce to Compete in the Creative Economy”, “The Nuts and Bolts of Economic Development: Tools for Attracting New Investment and Building Strong Communities”, “High-Impact Real Estate Financing” and “Leveraging Urban, Suburban and Rural Assets for Sustained Economic Growth”.

The IEDC Annual Conference brings together more than 1,500 leaders in business, government, and academics to examine current economic development policy issues and debate solutions. Together they will share best practices, explore new strategies and listen to innovative leaders and the approaches they have taken to strengthen communities, build businesses and foster economic opportunity. It is an intensive learning and networking experience for participants, offering a wide range of dynamic choices, including over 50 plenary, concurrent, and seminar sessions, educational tours and outstanding keynote speakers.

WAIPA members are invited to participate in this event, free of charge. The expenditures for the meals and the accomodation will be borne by the participants. Should you be interested in participating in this event, please contact: karine.campanelli@waipa.org or isa-beatrice.abel@waipa.org

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

News: “NEPAD partners with business to implement infrastructure projects”, Dr Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, Chair NEPAD Business Group, Executive President, African Business Roundtable, Special Envoy UNIDO.

As business meet with governments this week at WEF to discuss economic growth and job creation NEPAD reveals its partnership with business to finance infrastructure development.
Business has no appetite to invest in African infrastructure projects. Research conducted by African Investment Advisory (AIA) and the African Business Roundtable (ABR) identifies several reasons for this, including a mixture of inaccurate perceptions, poor structuring, ambiguous legislation and inadequate facilitation, limited capacity and a failure to connect potential sponsors (both international and indigenous) with "do-able" projects. Project preparation is an expensive and time-consuming business. Only a few projects actually leave the drawing board. As a consequence, companies are simply not prepared to involve themselves at a pre-feasibility stage. And governments, by and large, lack the technical skills required to make infrastructure 'bankable' and competitive. As a result, we find ourselves in a position today where there is a lot of money chasing too few projects in Africa. A recent survey of institutional investors conducted by Africa investor revealed that there is $5400billion of assets under management in Africa. We need to attract some of these funds into infrastructure development. For this reason, NEPAD and the NEPAD Business Group is bringing together institutional investors, project sponsors, developers and policy makers at a Projects Summit on 9 November in Nairobi to coincide with the UN Conference of Parties meeting in Kenya where all Ministers of Finance and Environment will be present. The Summit will provide matchmaking services, marrying project sponsors and developers with financiers.

During the course of the last year, the NEPAD Secretariat, the organisation charged with the continent's economic, trans-frontier programmes and projects, has been reaching out to business to try to facilitate private sector investment into priority infrastructure projects. The NEPAD Infrastructure Investment Facility (NIIF) is a joint initiative of NEPAD and the NEPAD Business Group designed to encourage private sector participation in infrastructure and address some of the problems I have detailed above. It will comprise a capacity building facility and a project preparation facility, to encourage and facilitate private investment into infrastructure by providing adequate resources for project preparation. It has also formed a high-level board of NEPAD and business infrastructure experts to work with governments to tackle legislative barriers to cross border projects and improve the infrastructure investment climate. The board is chaired by myself. Ambassador Wiloughby, Deputy CEO of NEPAD Secretariat also sits on the Board. NEPAD has identified improved infrastructure as essential to economic growth and development and has drawn up, in consultation with the Regional Economic Communities, a list of Short Term Action Priority Projects (STAP). NIIF is a private sector led initiative and exists to help this process. The demand for project preparation facilities far exceeds supply. The NEPAD ENERGY STAP projects alone require approximately $7bn of investment. If we calculate that up to 10% of this total is needed simply to prepare these projects for funding (a standard industry average), then the money required for preparation is equal to about $700million. Less than $350 million is actually available for project preparation today. Put simply, we need to double the availability of funds for project preparation, and harness the skills of companies with the technical skills to carry out the work required to make these projects 'bankable'. NIFF will assist in both these areas.

Publication: UNCTAD's Global Investment Prospects Assessment (GIPA) 2005-2008

UNCTAD´s Global Investment Prospects Assessment (GIPA) is designed to assess short- and medium-term prospects for FDI. It analyses predicted future patterns of FDI flows at the global, regional, national, and industry levels from the perspectives of global investors, host countries and international FDI experts. It also analyses evolving trends in the strategies of TNCs as well as FDI policies.

GIPA is designed to fill a research and policy analysis gap, equipping Governments and business alike with a critical instrument for proactive development of policies and strategies, as opposed to post facto assessment of foreign investment facts.

We invite our members to go to “FDI Prospects 2005-2008” on: www.unctad.org. The Assessment is based on the findings of three worldwide surveys (i.e. the surveys of the world´s largest TNCs, national investment promotion agencies and international investment experts); as well as on the analysis of relevant leading economic indicators, and policy developments that would shape future FDI patterns.