Following the successful first three editions of the Investment Facilitation Course jointly organized by WAIPA and the International Training Centre of ILO in May 2016, March 2017 and April 2018, the fourth edition was held in June 2019 at the ILO International Training Centre in Turin, Italy.

Participants from Bahrain, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Comoros, Dominican Republic, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, Mali, Niger, South Africa, Turkey, Uganda, UAE and the UK, as well as, COMESA RIA, Caribbean Export Development Agency and the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) joined us to explore the possibilities of facilitation, aftercare services, and impact of foreign direct investment flows.

The course helped investment promotion professionals to strengthen their investment promotion and facilitation capacities, expand their after-care services, enhance their ability to leverage the development impacts of FDI flowing into their countries, particularly the creation of more and better jobs and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The course covered following topics:

• Investment Facilitation
• The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
• Decent work and enterprise development
• Impact investment

Participants learned:

• How leading IPAs are improving their impact and shaping national development agendas.
• How to use FDI more effectively to create jobs, boost skills development, and increase business linkages
• Ways IPAs can facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogues between government sectors, investors, and communities
• Standard operating procedures during aftercare services, which help to improve match-making with local producers and contribute to job creation
• How to improve investor satisfaction and boost your reputation as a good place to do business

Speakers included Emily Sims, Karl Pfeffer and Tong Cai from ILO, Andreas Hora from WAIPA, Samet Akyuz from the Investment Office of the Presidency of Turkey and Weixi Gong and Brian Portelli from UNIDO.