Regional training workshop in Minsk for 15 countries of Eastern and Southern Europe and Central Asia to review key issues in investment agreements and dispute settlement procedures
UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi will attend the opening meeting of a 16-25 July training session intended to educate officials from 15 countries from Eastern Europe, Southern Europe and Central Asia on international investment agreements (IIAs), aiming at helping these countries to attract and benefit from foreign direct investment FDI through a predictable and stable legal framework.
The opening of this ten-day gathering will be held at the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Minsk.
Mr. Supachai will participate in the opening, high-level segment of the training session the morning of 16 July, titled "Foreign direct investment, transnational corporations and development: implications for economies in transition." Also participating will be Sergei Martynov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus; Cihan Sultanoglu, United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for Belarus; and Uladimir Bobrov, Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
IIAs have proliferated and have grown more complex in recent years - some 2,600 bilateral IIAs had been concluded by the end of 2006. The expansion of IIAs to include a broader range of topics and issues, such as trade in goods and services, and the growing number of cases brought under IIA dispute-settlement mechanisms, has left developing countries struggling on occasion to keep up to date on the nature of such agreements and the international rules that govern them. They also are frequently in need of training on how to negotiate IIAs so that the agreements support national development plans, and on how to cope with the complexities of dispute settlement regimes.
The Minsk workshop will be UNCTAD´s 18th regional training session on IIAs, and the first to be staged for Eastern and Southern Europe and Central Asia. The gathering has been organized by the UNCTAD Work Programme in International Investment Agreements in cooperation with the Government of Belarus and the United Nations representation in Belarus. It is being financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and others donor to the IIA Work Programme.
IIAs are agreements between countries that set the terms for foreign investment, and serve the purpose of establishing clear rules that can encourage flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) that are vital for economic growth. FDI brings not only capital to a host country, but also a wider package of features including technology, management know how and access to new markets. To increase their attractiveness to FDI, most developing countries and countries with economies in transition are not only establishing national legal frameworks aimed at reducing obstacles to FDI but are also participating actively in IIAs at the bilateral, regional and interregional levels.
The Minsk training session will include interactive presentations by negotiators of IIAs, specialists from international organizations, academics, and IIA practitioners. General areas to be covering during the ten-day training course are key issues relevant to the analysis and negotiation of IIAs; the impact of recent dispute-settlement cases; investment dispute settlement mechanisms; and arbitration procedures. There also will be the simulated negotiation of a comprehensive investment arrangement.
The 22 participants at the workshop will come from the following 15 countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Serbia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
