The 22nd Annual WAIPA (World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies) World Investment Conference (WIC17), held on November 27-28 in Dubai, brought together a number of experts to discuss the future outlook for FDI. Today, almost the entire international investment community is aligning with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals to address economic challenges in the global arena. WAIPA is perfectly positioned to integrate investment promotion with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals due to its linkages with Investment Promotion Agencies, international organizations, and investors.
During his address at the conference, ISPAT and WAIPA President Arda Ermut underlined WAIPA’s commitment to shouldering all of the additional responsibilities that come with the role of effectively empowering investment promotion agencies and supporting the global community in driving FDI. “We commit to playing our role in using FDI as a driving force for sustainable development. We are here to set the tone that partnerships and cooperation form the core of this goal. Global businesses, investment promotion agency professionals, and international organizations can together create opportunities that can cover the annual USD 2.5 trillion funding gap for achieving Sustainable Development Goals,” said Ermut.
Ispat reelected to Waipa presidency
Before WIC17, WAIPA held its General Assembly in Dubai. It was there that ISPAT was elected to the next term Presidency. The newly elected WAIPA Steering Committee for the 2017-2019 term included the investment promotion agencies of Türkiye, Dubai, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Mauritius, Kazakhstan, India, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and Costa Rica.
ISPAT is close to achieving the targets it had put forward in its first candidacy for WAIPA presidency in 2014. The Permanent Secretariat has been relocated to Istanbul from Geneva, and thus it was possible to decrease operating costs by almost half while at the same time quadrupling the number of activities. Since then, WAIPA has been actively contributing as a voice for its members in numerous events and conferences around the world. The Institution puts a very strong focus on cooperation and is in direct collaboration with UNCTAD, UNIDO, ILO, OECD, ICC, IEDC, and the World Bank, who are also members of the WAIPA Consultative Committee.
WAIPA is an umbrella organization that covers 170 national and regional investment promotion agencies from 130 countries. It engages extensively to fnd solutions to improve the FDI score for countries and to address economic challenges faced by investment promotion agencies, private sector businesses, and governments.