Export-oriented investment promotion agencies in Jamaica, Latvia and Oman receive UNCTAD awards

The investment decisions of transnational corporations (TNCs) are today increasingly linked to international trade patterns and the growth of global value chains (GVCs), which now contribute to 80 per cent of global trade. Government policymakers and their investment promotion agencies (IPAs) have therefore been keen to get in on the action and to bring export-oriented investment – often related to GVCs – to their shores. Such investment can help countries to broaden their participation in GVCs and to capture higher-value activities and upgrade their exports.

In this light, UNCTAD is showcasing best practices in attracting export-oriented foreign direct investment (FDI). UNCTAD’s Investment Promotion Awards 2013 reward national investment promotion agencies that have attracted quality projects, have facilitated their countries’ access to GVCs, and have benefited from such value chains.

The winners of this year’s awards for excellence in promoting export-oriented FDI are the Jamaica Promotions Corporation, the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, and the Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development of Oman. IPA officials from these countries were presented with their awards on the evening of 29 April 2013 by Ambassador Mikhail Khvostov of Belarus, and James Zhan, Director of UNCTAD’s Division on Investment and Enterprise.

The runners-up for this year’s Awards included Copenhagen Capacity (Denmark), the Export and Investment Centre of the Dominican Republic, the Board of Investment of Mauritius, ProMéxico, ProNicaragua, Trade and Investment South Africa, and the Innovation and Development Agency of Andalusia (Spain).

The three joint winners of UNCTAD’s Investment Promotion Awards 2013 were able to attract FDI projects in a highly competitive environment and against the background of a global fall in FDI last year. Jamaica, Latvia and Oman secured export-oriented FDI projects in a variety of sectors in manufacturing and services thanks to their innovative TNC targeting and the efficient use of public–private partnerships involving local centres of talent and local suppliers.

UNCTAD seeks to identify best practices in investment promotion among the IPA members of its World Investment Network. The UNCTAD Investment Promotion Awards, which have honoured best practices in various fields of investment promotion since 2002, are part of a strategy to capture lessons learned by IPAs and to disseminate them for the benefit of other agencies in developing countries. The Awards are part of UNCTAD’s investment promotion and facilitation programme.