CAIPA Strengthens Regional IPA’s to Attract Foreign Direct Investment into the Caribbean
Bridgetown, Barbados, April, 17, 2013. On 17-19 April 2013, Caribbean Export Development Agency, in collaboration with the Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agency (CAIPA), will be hosting a regional training session for Investment Promotion Agencies within the Caribbean on Investor Facilitation entitled: Attracting FDI through Good Investment Facilitation.
The 3 day hands-on intensive training session will be facilitated by the Investment Climate Section of the World Bank. More than 30 representatives from 18 Caribbean countries will be participating in the training that will be held in Kingston, Jamaica.
This capacity building exercise is one in a series of training sessions being undertaken by Caribbean Export within the framework of the 10th European Development Fund Regional Private Sector Development Programme funded by the European Union.
Caribbean Export, has targeted the continued strengthening of CAIPA as one of its priority areas of focus.
As a CARIFORUM Agency, Caribbean Export also manages trade development and export promotion for CARIFORUM states and has responsibilities for regional investment promotion. The Agency sits as the secretariat for CAIPA.
Pamela Coke-Hamilton. Photo courtesy www.caricomnewsnetwork.com
CAIPA is a regional Association of 19 Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs), including CARIFORUM Agencies and IPAs from Curacao, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands. CAIPA aims to promote the Caribbean for investment through increased collaborative efforts among the region’s IPAs.
The training exercise will be based on the results of the Global Investment Promotion Best Practices 2012 report which is a biennial publication of the World Bank Group.
The Report evaluates IPAs’ websites and their responsiveness to investor information requests, two of the most important channels for providing information to investors in the early stages of the site selection process.
The Report, which assesses 189 IPAs worldwide has noted that as many as 5 of every 6 provide little or no information to investors who ask for it as a part of their site selection processes.
Other studies by the World Bank and the University of Oxford have found that there was a strong positive correlation between the provision of information by the government and investor decisions to locate in an economy.
In particular, in countries where the investment climate can be categorized as unpredictable and non-transparent, IPA support could make a significant difference to investors, influencing their decisions.
It is against this background and in a bid to increase levels of FDIs (foreign direct investments) to the region that Caribbean Export and CAIPA have organized this event.
“It is anticipated that, following the development of targeted strategies during the training to assist the IPAs to improve on their inquiry handling processes, that the region will be better placed to attract and facilitate investment” notes Mrs. Pamela Coke Hamilton, Executive Director of Caribbean Export.
Participating IPAs will include: the Antigua and Barbuda Investment Authority, the Bahamas Investment Authority, Invest Barbados, the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE), the Cayman Island Department of Commerce & Investment.
The Ministry of Economic Development of Curacao, Invest Dominica Authority, the Centre for Export and Investment in the Dominican Republic, the Grenada Industrial Development Corporation.
The Guyana Office for Investment (GO-INVEST), the Centre for the facilitation of Investment in Haiti (CFI-Haiti), Jamaica Promotions (JAMPRO), the Montserrat Development Corporation.
Invest Saint Lucia, Invest SVG representing St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the St. Kitts Investment Promotions Agency (SKIPA), the Investment and Development Corporation of Suriname and invesTT representing Trinidad and Tobago.
