The Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group is helping 14 Caribbean nations attract greater foreign direct investment by upgrading skills and systems at their national investment promotion agencies and helping them improve their scores in the Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking 2011.
A potential investor has a 50 percent chance of getting a response when he calls a Caribbean investment promotion agency requesting information and assistance. The World Bank Group’s 2009 Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking report found that 11 of 24 such project inquiries went unanswered during an assessment of the region. As a result, the investment promotion centers in the region scored poorly relative to those in Latin America.
From October 20 to October 22, about 25 public officers from Caribbean investment promotion agencies will attend a workshop to build their capacity for investment facilitation and develop institution-specific action plans for strengthening their inquiry-handling and upgrading their websites. The workshop has been designed not only to transfer IFC’s technical expertise and explore international best practices but also to promote regional cooperation.
The workshop will bring together representatives from Antigua and Barbuda,
Bahamas, Belize, Curacao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.
