The Swedish Agency for International Development Cooperation (SIDA) will contribute €1 million to an UNCTAD technical cooperation project on investment promotion, Swedish ambassador Elisabeth Borsiin Bonnier announced in Geneva today at a meeting of UNCTAD´s Trade and Development Board. The project, on "Capacity-building and Transfer of Knowledge to Investment Promotion Agencies in Developing Countries", will contribute to the implementation of the "Investment for Development Partnership" initiative, which was launched at UNCTAD XI (São Paulo, June 2004) with the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) as designated principal partner.
The project will support the transfer of knowledge to, and capacity-building of, investment promotion agencies (IPAs) from developing countries, especially least developed countries, through WAIPA. Core activities are human resource development through specialized training and study tours for the exchange of experiences, as well as research and publications on topics of direct relevance to investment promotion professionals.
Kai Hammerich, President of WAIPA and Director-General of the Invest in Sweden Agency, said the project would help WAIPA reach its objective of disseminating information and exchanging best practices in investment promotion, particularly for the benefit of IPAs from developing countries. Member agencies will be invited to share their experiences and participate in the training and study tour programme.
WAIPA was established in 1995 at an UNCTAD meeting in Geneva. It has since grown from 73 member agencies to 180, representing 147 countries. Cooperation between UNCTAD and WAIPA has been close over the past 10 years. WAIPA annual meetings have been organized in parallel with meetings of UNCTAD´s Commission on Investment and with recent UNCTAD conferences in France, Thailand and Brazil. The next joint meeting of WAIPA and UNCTAD´s Investment Commission will take place in Geneva from 6 to 8 March 2006.