The 8th China International Fair of Investment and Trade (CIFIT) will take place in Xiamen, China from 8-13 September 2004. WAIPA will once again, in cooperation with the Investment Promotion Agency of China’s Ministry of Commerce and UNCTAD, organize from 10 to 12 September 2004 a workshop. The topic this year will be Investor Aftercare and Corporate Development Services, and is sponsored by Ernst & Young. It is planned that 30 to 40 representatives of Chinese provincial investment promotion agencies will attend this event. Mr Kai Hammerich, newly elected WAIPA President, will deliver a keynote address and facilitate an investors forum at the workshop.

Forthcoming UNCTAD event on investment promotion

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC), is organizing a 3.day training workshop: Capacity Building in Benchmarking Investment Policies in West Africa, to be held in Accra, Ghana on 5-7 October 2004.The workshop is targeted to high-level executives involved in strategic decision-making, particularly those who deal regularly with investors or are concerned with assessing and promoting their country as an investment destination. This course will train executives involved in investment promotion to benchmark investment policies and to understand the investors' location selection process in order to better target their efforts in investment promotion and economic development. As the result of the event executives will learn: i) to compare their countries with competitors, and position their policies in view of their country's specific advantages, using UNCTAD's Investment Compass, and ii) how investors select and evaluate locations based on the Investment Location Selection Process, and which factors are important for decision-making. The workshop is totally free to participants. A special travel grant is a
vailable to Executives. Deadline for registration is 17 September 2004.

For more information contact: Mr. Ashong Lartey, GIPC, Tel: (+233-244) 259 706, email: ALartey@gipc.org.gh, or Mr. Sharafat Ahmad, UNCTAD, Tel: (+41-22) 907 5049, email: sharafat.ahmad@unctad.org

Important forthcoming event on international investment

Global Forum on International Investment: Investment for Development - Forging Partnerships

The 2004 annual conference of the OECD Global Forum on International Investment (GFII) along with a series of associated events will take place in New Delhi, India, on 19-21 October 2004. GFII will be hosted by the Government of India and supported by the Confederation of Indian Industry. The GFII will examine the role of international co-operation in enhancing the business environment and maximising the benefits of investment in developing countries. The three main areas of focus will be: (i) The OECD initiative on a Policy Framework for Investment as an operational tool to promote investment for development; (ii) Promoting corporate responsibility – defining the roles of government and business; and (ii) Maximising official development assistance – synergies for development.

The day before the GFII, on 19 October, the first OECD-India Investment Roundtable will focus on "Opportunities and Policy Challenges for Investment in India". The Roundtable will provide an opportunity for policymakers and business representatives from OECD member countries, India and other non-member countries to discuss, inter alia: (i) India’s investment policies: progress and future directions (ii) Sectoral FDI policies: the case of infrastructure and public utilities (iii) The road ahead: investment partnership with India.

Associated with the GFII, a WAIPA Regional Workshop on Strategic Marketing for Investment will be held from 21 to 22 September 2004. The event will be sponsored by IBM Business Consulting Services-PLI. Additional information on this WAIPA meeting will be posted later.

For more information on OECD forum see: http://www.oecd.org/document/56/0,2340,en_2649_37467_32233656_1_1_1_37467,00.html

New publication on investment related issues

Risk Instability and the Pattern of Foreign Direct Investment in the Middle East and North Africa Region, IMF Working Paper No. 04/139, Author/Editor: Kitty Chan//Edward Gemayel, Middle East and Central Asia Department

This paper demonstrates that instability associated with investment risk is critical in explaining the level of foreign direct investment for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, which generally have higher investment risk than developed countries. The empirical results support this hypothesis, whether either the standard deviation or the interquartile range is used as a measure of instability, in a dynamic panel model. The paper recommends a reorientation of policies toward those with a longer-term focus in order to help lower the degree of risk instability for MENA countries. The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy.

For more details see: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.cfm?sk=17518.0