07/11/05

Welcome to new member from Denmark!

We are pleased to announce that Invest in Denmark has become the 181 st member of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA). The Association covers now 148 countries worldwide.

Waipa Regional Workshop, a cluster based approach to attracting FDI, 5-8 December 2005, Marseille, France

WAIPA, in collaboration with UNCTAD and the Euro-Mediterranean Network ANIMA, is organizing a training workshop on "Cluster Creation and Development" for IPA professionals from the MENA and Gulf Region. It will be held on 5-8 December 2005, in Marseille , France . Senior consultants from OCO Consulting will conduct this four-day workshop, which will be kindly hosted by ANIMA. The series on "Cluster Creation and Development" has received the best evaluation by participants in previous WAIPA training workshops, which were held in Bahrain (December 2004) and Botswana (March 2004).

The objective of the course is to help investment promotion practitioners to understand foreign investors' needs and, on that basis, design a marketing strategy. Workshop participants will be introduced to analytical tools for IPAs to segment sector and country targets and market their country and the IPA services in the most cost-effective way. The workshop will create awareness of the different marketing tools available and their performance ratios. The curriculum will include best practices by IPAs in the region. The specific sector-based case studies will be selected on the basis of the composition of workshop participants. The workshop structure has been designed to allow participants to work on a marketing strategy for their own IPA during the course. This will allow them to benefit from the input of other participants and the trainers. The workshop curriculum addresses mainly IPA professionals from the marketing, sales and strategy departments.

For further information, please contact Mrs. Isa-Beatrice Abel at: isa-beatrice.abel@waipa.org, tel.: +41 22 907 1730.

Symposium on Making the Most of International Investment Agreements: A Common Agenda, 12 December 2005, Paris, France

The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) are three organisations which play significant and complementary roles at the international level in the field of investment agreements, whether monitoring and analysing investment agreements and disputes or acting as a secretariat of a dispute settlement forum.

This Symposium is organised jointly by ICSID, OECD and UNCTAD. Its purpose is for non-governmental actors to share their perspectives on emerging investment arbitration issues identified by governments and their international organisations; to explore and advance the agenda which developed and developing country parties to investment agreements have in common; and to consider ways for the three organisations and other interested institutions to best work together and respond to the needs of their members and the investment community.  The Symposium will address the following issues: recent developments in investment arbitration, specific challenging issues of jurisdictional and substantive nature facing the parties in investor-state dispute settlement procedures, possible ways for improving the system of investment arbitration, co-operation among international organisations active in this field.

Participation at the symposium is by invitation only and there is no attendance fee. The conference languages will be English and French.

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

UNCTAD Expert Meeting on Capacity Building in FDI, 12-14 December 2005, Geneva, Switzerland

The UNCTAD Expert Meeting on Capacity Building in FDI, which is to be held in Geneva , Switzerland , on 12-14 December 2005, will discuss key issues on FDI data compilation and analysis and policy formulation in developing countries. It will raise the awareness of member States regarding internationally accepted standards relating to FDI data collection and reporting systems, including with respect to the activities of foreign affiliates in host countries. The Expert Meeting will discuss problems facing developing countries, particularly least developed countries (LDCs), in providing policy makers with timely and accurate FDI and TNC data that will enable them to make informed decisions and design appropriate policies. The Meeting will provide an opportunity for various national and regional agencies to share their expertise and experience with respect to ways and means of addressing those problems.

For further information, please contact Mr Masataka Fujita at: masataka.fujita@unctad.org or J. François Outreville at: jf.outreville@unctad.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. 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 o'clock , on the 8th of March 2006 . Further information will be provided in the next WAIPA Mailings. We are looking forward to seeing you at the conference!

MIGA is seeking to hire a marketing and online services specialist

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group is seeking to hire a marketing and online services specialist to provide intellectual leadership and take responsibility for the design and implementation of several online marketing and content development activities, as well as support the operation and expansion of MIGA's online investment information services. See full job description at www.ipanet.net. The deadline for submitting curriculum vitae is December 15, 2005.