Investment Promotion in LDCs: A Needs Assessment

The key messages:

• The global poly-crisis has disproportionately affected investment flows towards critical sectors that contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the most vulnerable countries.
   
• Investment promotion agencies (IPAs) in LDCs are facing challenges related to lack of resources for aftercare services, the promotion of new sectors post-pandemic, government budget cuts, and insufficient digital technology.
   
• Working towards the achievement of the SDGs has become an integral consideration for many LDC IPAs, but they require support to address sustainability more strategically in their work, including by better aligning their performance indicators to the SDGs.
   
• Channeling transformative investment towards untapped opportunities in LDCs will require enhanced support from the international community, including in capacity-building in investment promotion and facilitation.
   

UNCTAD and its partners are building the capacity of officials in 20 LDCs in investment promotion and facilitation for greater sustainable development impact through a multi-agency programme.

As part of the programme, a needs-assessment of LDC IPAs was conducted based on surveys of investors with operations in LDCs and LDC IPAs.

This special issue highlights the main findings from these surveys. A more detailed report of the surveys is also available here.