Johannesburg, 3 September 2002-- The Government of Sweden has announced two donations to UNCTAD for its work in the area of investment.
SEK 6 million ($640,000) was pledged towards UNCTAD´s project on capacity-building in developing countries on issues in international investment agreements. This project seeks to assist developing countries and economies in transition in the follow-up to the Doha Declaration´s work programme on the relationship between trade and investment, which was adopted at the WTO´s Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar, last November. Another pledge of SEK 2 million ($213,000) was announced for UNCTAD´s project on good governance in investment promotion and facilitation.
The announcement was made at the meeting here on 1 September of the UNCTAD/ICC Investment Advisory Council (IAC), a framework for high-level consultations between business and government leaders. The meeting took place on the occasion of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
UNCTAD´s work programme on IIAs aims to provide developing countries and economies in transition with research and policy analysis and development, along with human and institutional capacity-building. It offers intensive training courses, workshops on negotiation facilitation and WTO issues, and technical assistance for institution-building in the area of foreign investment. The activities are intended to help beneficiary countries better evaluate the implications for their development policies and objectives of closer multilateral cooperation in the area of long-term cross-border investment, particularly foreign direct investment.
UNCTAD´s work programme on good governance focuses on the streamlining of investment procedures and the introduction of client-oriented and transparent administrative systems that will facilitate and encourage investment by both national and foreign companies. The first phase began with five least developed countries: Ethiopia, Lesotho, Maldives, Mali and Tanzania. Activities include advisory work on reducing non-transparent practices and other “hassle costs” for investors, and consensus-building on concrete action plans. The programme also offers training to medium- and high-level officials and builds local training capacity through training-of-trainers courses.
