Accra, 19 April 2008 — The investment promotion agencies of Mauritius, Afghanistan, and Latvia received awards yesterday for outstanding performance in advocating policies that have helped their governments to stimulate foreign investment and local development.
The awards, presented at the World Investment Forum in Accra, Ghana, were given jointly by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA). The Forum is being held in Accra in advance of the UNCTAD XII quadrennial conference.
The Board of Investment (BOI) of Mauritius took the top prize. The Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA) and the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) were joint runners-up.
Countries increasingly compete for foreign investment to stimulate economic growth and promote development. Investment promotion agencies (IPAs) often lead their countries in this effort and achieve progress through cooperation with both businesses and governments.
Working with national and international partners, BOI Mauritius has championed reforms that have created a reputation of Mauritius as a highly effective investment environment. Starting with an in-depth diagnostic of the investment climate, the comprehensive reforms have resulted in Mauritius´ investment environment being among the top developing countries in international rankings.
AISA, despite working under the challenging circumstances prevailing in Afghanistan and despite being a relatively small agency, has helped implement measures ranging from privatization programmes and public-private dialogues to the establishment of industrial parks and the easing of access to credit.
Latvia´s LIAA was chosen for the effectiveness of its policy advocacy action plan. Presented annually for the last nine years, the plan has recommended 193 policy, legal and regulatory reforms, of which 150 have so far been implemented.
The panel of judges for the awards consisted of investment experts from UNCTAD and academia. All 225 members of WAIPA were invited to participate in the category of policy advocacy. Winners were selected based on the impact of their efforts on investment and development, on their ability to build consensus, on obstacles overcome, and on other criteria.
