59931 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa World Bank Group Advisory Services Investment Climate Copyright © 2009 The World Bank Group 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America May 2009 Available online at www.fdipromotion.com The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions or all of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable law. The World Bank Group encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission to reproduce portions of the work promptly. For permission to photocopy or reprint, please send a request with complete information to: Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. 222 Rosewood Drive Danvers, MA 01923, USA t. 978-750-8400; f.978-750-4470 www.copyright.com All queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to: The Office of the Publisher The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433, USA 202-522-2422 e-mail: pubrights@worldbank.org The Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group (IC AS) assists the governments of developing countries and transition economies in reforming their business environments, with emphasis on regulatory simplification and investment generation. IC AS relies on close collaboration with its donors and World Bank Group partners to leverage value and deliver tangible results for client governments. IC AS is managed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and supported by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the World Bank (IBRD). For more information, visit www.fias.net. The Organizations (IFC, MIGA, and IBRD), through IC AS, endeavor, using their best efforts in the time available, to provide high quality services hereunder and have relied on information provided to them by a wide range of other sources. However, they do not make any representations or warranties regarding the completeness or accuracy of the information included in this publication. This report was written jointly by IC AS and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Regional Investment Agency. COMESA is an organisation for economic and regional integration created in 1993 and whose Treaty was ratified at the Lilongwe Summit in 1994. It consists of 19 member-States: Burundi, Comoros, Congo, Dem. Rep., Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. For more information, visit http://www.comesa.int acknowledGments IC AS gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Kirstyn Boyle (DTZ), Barry Bright, Henry Loewendahl (OCO Global), Bill Luttrell (Jones Lang Lasalle), and Amaya Manrique (former IBM Plant Location International, currently PromoMadrid) during a focus group with site selection experts held in April 2008, which helped to validate and upgrade the methodology of this report. Several colleagues provided useful feedback during this report's peer review process. IC AS is especially grateful to Stephan Dreyhaupt, Program Manager, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); Karin Millett, Head of IC AS Investment Generation-Vienna; Vincent Palmade, Lead Economist for the Africa Region, Private and Financial Sector Development, World Bank; Karl P. Sauvant, Executive Director, Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment and Co-Director, Millennium Cities Initiative; Paul Wessendorp, Chief of the Investment Facilitation Section at the Division on Investment and Enterprise of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); Dilek Aykut, Economist in the Development Economics, Development Prospects Group (DECPG) of the World Bank; Frank Lysy, Director and Chief Economist, MIGA; James Emery, Head of the Sub-Saharan Africa Department, Strategy and Coordination Unit, International Finance Corporation (IFC); Rita Ramalho, Economist, Doing Business, IFC, for their insightful comments. Finally, IC AS wishes to acknowledge the indispensable contribution of MIGA, which pioneered the methodology used for this report in 2006. 3 contents Foreword 8 by louIs t. wells chaPter 1: 11 Global results Facilitation Makes More Sense in the Global Downturn 11 GIPB Examines How IPIs Provide Information to Investors 12 Global Overview: Excellence Is Emerging in All Regions 14 IPI Performance Varies, Investors' Needs Do Not 16 Regional Overview: Worlds of Investment Promotion 17 Online Promotion Has Improved, but Customer Inquiries Remain a Challenge 21 Good News: Facilitation Standards Are Rising 22 Priorities for Moving Forward 26 chaPter 2: 27 what does It take to sell a locatIon onlIne? IPI Web Site Assessment Results Reveal Disparities 27 Best COMESA Web Site Mix 28 COMESA Online: Ahead of Sub-Saharan Africa and Moving Forward 30 Key Aspects of Online Promotion Remain Ineffective 33 Quick Wins for Effective Online Promotion 38 chaPter 3: 39 resPondInG to Investors' InFormatIon InQuIrIes National Rankings Reveal Substantial Variation in Global Capability 39 Inquiry-Handling Capability Is Growing in Middle-Income Regions 40 Implications for Foreign Investors Exploring Lesser-Known Destinations 45 Quick Wins for Effective Investor Inquiry Handling 46 4 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa chaPter 4: 48 measurInG IPIs' Investment-attractIon actIvItIes Why Measure IPIs? 48 Information Is Key to Site Selection 49 GIPB's Approach and the Foreign Company's Site-Selection Process 50 What Does GIPB Tell Us about an IPI? 50 Who Is GIPB Designed for? 51 Methodological Note 52 54 aPPendIces Appendix A. GIPB 2009 COMESA Results 54 Appendix B. GIPB 2009 Global Results 55 Appendix C. Acronyms 63 Appendix D. List of Participating National IPIs, by Region 64 Appendix E. List of Participating Subnational IPIs, by Region 71 Appendix F. Description and Overall Weightings of Themes and Subthemes 73 Appendix G. Description of Inquiry-Handling Scenarios 76 Appendix H. How Scores are Calculated 79 contents 5 FIGures 1. OECD High-Income Countries Retain Investment Facilitation Lead 15 2. Top National IPIs 16 3. OECD High-Income Countries Provide the Only Cases of IPIs Achieving Overall Best Practice 16 4. Regional Performance, by GIPB Assessment Category 18 5. Best-Practice/Good-Practice IPIs by Region 19 6. COMESA IPIs Are Still Struggling with the Basics 21 7. Major Improvers Since 2006: Croatia and Botswana Lead the Way 22 8. Top 7 COMESA Web Sites 28 9. How Do Web Sites Compare? 30 10. Best-Practice Web Sites Are Emerging Across All Regions 30 11. Botswana Makes Investing as Easy as 1, 2, 3 33 12. The Performance Gap Between OECD High-Income, COMESA and Non-OECD 36 High-Income IPIs: Web Sites 13. Performance Across the Four Web Site Dimensions 36 14. Top IPIs in Inquiry Handling 40 15. Regional Performance in Overall Inquiry Handling, and by Inquiry 41 16. The Performance Gap between OECD High-Income, COMESA and Non-OECD 41 High-Income IPIs: Inquiry Handling 17. Inquiry-Handling Performance Across the Four Key Dimensions 42 18. Inquiry Handling Through the Eyes of an Investor 44 19. The Site-Selection Process: From Desk to Field Research 49 boXes 1. Why Facilitation is Key 12 2. Budget May Not Be an Excuse for Poor Facilitation 15 3. How the Austrian Business Agency Beat Its Competition 17 4. Ecuador: Facilitation as Strategy 24 5. Securing Business Service Outsourcing in Nicaragua through Professional Facilitation 25 6. What Do the IPIs of the Czech Republic, France, Latvia, Austria, and Nicaragua Have in 31 Common? 7. Types of Promotion Investment Mapping 34 8. How Brazil Delivered First-Class Inquiry-Handling Service 40 9. How Mauritius Managed to Stay Ahead of the Game 43 6 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking 2009 (GIPB) is the second in a series of biennial reviews investigating the investment promotion capabilities of investment promotion intermediaries (IPIs) worldwide. GIPB complements the wider investment climate reforms underway in many countries. Between March and September 2008 the abilities of 181 national IPIs and 32 subnational IPIs were assessed, making this the most comprehensive IPI benchmarking exercise ever undertaken. GIPB 2009 report did not include Libya in its assessment. The selection of countries for the GIPB 2009 assessment was based on the Doing Business sample of countries, which did not include Libya. The upcoming GIPB 2011 report will expand the sample of national IPIs to 184, including Libya. Using a peer-reviewed methodology replicating actual projects and the decision-making criteria and location selection behaviors of direct investors in the early stages of a location selection process, independent consultants have assessed IPI Web sites and the ability of IPIs to manage and respond to investment inquiries. The results give direct insight into information provision capacity around the world, along with indirect insight into the organizational effectiveness of each IPI, its management efficiency, and its understanding of the foreign direct investment marketplace. GIPB constitutes two types of reports: Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking 2009: Summary Report. An analysis of the global results, regional trends, and best-practice examples from top performers. The Summary Report can be downloaded from www.fdipromotion.com Customized IPI Reports. Simultaneously with the launch of the Summary Report, each participating IPI received an electronic copy of a customized and detailed diagnostic report of its own performance with insights and specific recommendations for improvement. IPIs can request additional copies of their own customized reports by sending an e-mail to fias@ifc.org. contents 7 Foreword by louIs t. wells Many countries are convinced that foreign direct will beat a path to your door." New products investment (FDI) should be an important have to be marketed. component of their growth strategy. To encourage FDI, they have improved their Similarly, regardless of how good they are, business climates, developed various guarantees domestic reforms are by themselves not enough for investors, and offered incentives. Yet, time to attract large numbers of foreign companies to and again, reforms have not led to the expected most economies. As a practical matter, neither inflows of FDI. Without efforts by countries to consumers nor business managers are able market themselves to potential investors, constantly to monitor all producers or countries company business managers have generally for opportunities. Decision makers typically limit failed to add new countries to their "short list" their options to a short list made up of what of attractive sites for their projects. Through the they are familiar with or what their friends and Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking rivals have chosen. Marketing efforts, however, (GIPB), IC AS has developed a unique and can reach customers and investors with valuable approach to measure how well messages that encourage a look at something countries are able to market themselves by new, something they would not otherwise providing relevant, accurate and timely consider. Thus, a good investment promotion information to potential investors. program is essential if foreign companies are to learn about a country's attractions as an It is tempting to believe that markets work investment site. But many countries have failed perfectly, leading foreign companies to a country at the most basic function of marketing a if it just gets its investment climate right. Yet, in country: making relevant information easily business, simply offering a better "product" is available to potential investors. rarely enough to bring in customers. It's a rare business manager who really believes the old A full-scale investment promotion program adage: "Build a better mouse trap and the world comprises several activities. It can attempt to 8 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa create a favorable image of a country in Why do IPIs so frequently fail at this basic investors' minds, through advertising and function? There are probably several reasons. general investment missions abroad; it might First, unlike advertising programs and investment undertake investment-generating activities, such missions, collecting and providing information as targeted missions and sales visits to potential appears rather mundane; it is often not very investors; and it can service potential investors by visible and "countable" to those allocating providing timely and relevant information, government budgets. Overcoming this barrier hosting potential investors, and helping investors may require better communications with other through the investment process. Of course, a government bodies on what an IPI is doing and good program can do more, such as providing why, and the development of metrics aimed at assistance to foreign companies already measuring performance of this function. Second, investing in the country and by encouraging the task cannot be farmed out to others, government to take further steps to improve the as can advertising and even organizing and investment climate. funding investment missions. Assembly of information and its dissemination has to be done In the real world, investment promotion in-house. This means that personnel within the intermediaries (IPIs) face tight budget and IPI must be trained, evaluated, and rewarded human resource constraints. Allocating scarce for carrying out this task well. Third, assembling resources among the various possible activities is relevant information requires a good deal of a major component of developing an effective understanding­and prediction­of what investors promotion strategy. Research, including that want and need to know. This in turns requires covered in this report, suggests that many IPIs knowledge of the country's individual business are failing to devote enough attention to the sectors. To do better, IPIs must improve most basic­and least costly­promotion function, business skills among their professionals. This one that, if it fails, undermines all other can mean careful hiring decisions, training promotion activities. programs for professionals already in the organization, and learning from relationships Provision of services to potential investors­and with investors in the country. And IPIs must target particularly the provision of information­is basic their efforts. No IPI can have at hand all to all promotion. Image-building efforts can be information for all possible investment sectors; hugely expensive. Similarly, targeted missions targeting allows for focused efforts. Fourth, and personal selling are costly in terms of both storing and retrieving quickly needed data time and effort. However, if these activities demands that an IPI have good data systems. succeed in convincing investors to look into a Fifth, information technology (IT) and other IPI country's prospects, they are a waste of departments are often too separated. resources if the IPI then fails to offer sufficiently Management must make sure that IT informative Web sites and does not respond to departments, or outside Web site developers, requests with accurate and timely information are intimately linked to promotion that potential investors need; of course, even professionals. And, finally, to make sure that worse is not to respond at all. If information is requests for information are filled quickly and hard to come by, investors will go elsewhere. with relevant information, IPIs must develop good management systems that assign responsibilities and ensure follow-up. Foreword by louIs t. wells 9 FDI offers the prospects of growth and jobs to host countries, but attracting it requires a good deal of effort. Effective investment promotion is not only less costly than adding on more incentives for investors; reform and incentives are unlikely to accomplish their goals without promotion. Promotion efforts will, however, fail to attract desired investment if IPIs are not skilled at the most basic function: collecting and providing to potential investors relevant and timely information. Ensuring that this function works well should be the top priority in the promotion strategy and in the development of management systems. Louis T. Wells Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management Harvard Business School Boston, MA, USA 10 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa chaPter 1: Global results Why IPIs? A recent survey of executives with direct site selection responsibilities for large U.S. companies reveals that: · 65percentofcompanieshaveworkedcloselywithIPIswhileworkingonalocationdecision. · 64percentofexecutivesindicateastronglikelihoodthatthattheywouldusetheIPIWeb site in their next location search. · Only8percentofcompanieswouldnotcontacttheIPIduringthesite-selectionprocess. · ThepercentageofcompaniesthatbelievetheWebsitetobeanIPI'smosteffective marketingtooljumpedto56percent,upfrom34percentin2002. Source: DCI. July 28, 2008. "A View from Corporate America: Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing."in Economic Development Marketing" Facilitation Makes More Sense in the that FDI flows could fall by as much as 30­40 Global Downturn percent in 2009. Today's shrinking economic environment makes As the pool of FDI shrinks, there will be more effective promotion of foreign investment an competition for fewer projects. The ability of IPIs especially competitive activity for countries. The to influence investment decisions with timely and current global economic slowdown and relevant country and sector information and associated financial instability are expected to facilitation efforts will be more crucial than ever. significantly reduce flows of FDI in 2009 and IPIs should rethink their strategies to maintain beyond. The extent of FDI decline will ultimately their relevance in the current FDI context depend on the depth and duration of the including shifting focus in the short to medium economic slowdown. However, companies are term from outreach to offering more professional already reluctant to make medium-term facilitation services to any new opportunities investments­many projects have been postponed knocking on their doors, and offering aftercare or even cancelled, and some estimates suggest services to existing business to ensure their chaPter 1: Global results 11 retention of jobs in the economy. The effective Box 1: Why Facilitation Is Key provision of relevant information can lessen The role of Invest in Sweden Agency in facilitating an investors' perceptions of risk and their unlikely investor transaction costs during the site-selection process, thereby making the IPI's location more competitive. Within the European Union, much higher import tariffs are levied on polished rice than on raw rice. To keep the price A renewed focus on the basics of investment of its basmati rice competitive, the Pakistani company Zeb Rice decided to build a factory in Europe so that it could promotion­namely, information provision and import raw rice into the European Union and process it facilitation services­may also secure the into white rice there. It therefore began a Europe-wide site existence of the IPI itself, in light of government search.Thecompany'smainlocationrequirementswerea cuts to investment promotion budgets. Surveys port, reliable shipping to mainland Europe--where most of such as the Development Counsellors the production would go--and good labor availability. International (DCI) "A View from Corporate Several countries competed for the business. Each lacked something, however, so the company began looking at America" (see boxes) show clearly that good alternative countries. A Norwegian board member of Zeb facilitation pays off, which is good news for IPIs Rice proposed Sweden. as this is by far the most cost-efficient investment Zeb Rice contacted Invest in Sweden Agency (ISA) in promotion activity. October2002torequestinformationonfacilitiesand services for foreign investors, including procedures for GIPB Examines How IPIs Provide incorporating the company, industrial land and buildings, infrastructure, tax system, and investment subsidies. Information to Investors Although the food sector was not a priority sector for ISA, and an inquiry from a Pakistani investor was decidedly GIPB 2009 is a timely and useful tool in the uncommon in Sweden, after assessing the credibility of the current economic context. It replicates the investment, ISA provided information materials, advice and decision-making process of foreign investors in counseling, contacts with local authorities, and assistance in the early "long-listing" stage of site selection. the actual establishment process. Throughout the process, the personal involvement of three Piloted in 2005 by the Multilateral Investment individuals had an indisputable impact in changing the Guarantee Agency (MIGA), GIPB was rolled out original investment plans of Zeb Rice: a senior manager for the first time in 2006, covering 96 countries at ISA, who took the inquiry from the Pakistani investors and 29 subnationals. GIPB 2009 evaluates 181 seriously and presented different location alternatives; the country IPIs and 32 subnational IPIs, setting out head of Investment Promotion of Skåne North East, a local a framework for assessing and improving IPI investment agency contacted by ISA that got involved in the investment and worked hard to get it to Åhus town; and capacity to provide information to foreign finally, a local harbor manager, who assisted with logistics companies looking to invest. In addition to the such as reconstruction of existing buildings and making global report, GIPB will provide a customized local contacts. confidential report for each IPI participating in The plant was inaugurated in 2004. The initial volume of the survey, with insights into their performance the investment was $4.4 million, but the company soon and tips for improvement. IPIs can request begantoexpand,goingfrom15employeesto23byearly 2005,whilesimultaneouslystartingupanadditionalfood additional copies at fias@ifc.org. production facility nearby. In the words of Makhdoom Abbas,ChiefExecutiveOfficerofZebRice'sSwedish IPIs are the institutionalization of a country's subsidiary,"ISA'shelpplayedakeyroleinourdecisionto commitment to attracting FDI to promote growth. set up the facility in Sweden, since we got very useful, Their role is to translate this strategy into results, practical, and reliable information." namely, productive FDI that increases the 12 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa country's gross domestic product. While GIPB 2009 does not tell the whole story about a country's investor friendliness or its ability to host What does GIPB measure? FDI, it does indicate which locations offer foreign · TheabilityofIPIstomeetinvestors' information needs at the early stages of companies useful support and guidance through the investment process the investment-location selection process­and where that support and guidance are lacking. What does GIPB not measure? · Countries'overallFDIcompetitiveness GIPB evaluated IPIs in terms of their Web sites · Countries'businessclimates and inquiry-handling skills1 · IPIs'facilitationatthesitevisitlevel · IPIs'servicestodomesticinvestorsorto established foreign investors GIPB assessed IPIs' ability to meet foreign investors' information needs in two ways: · TheextenttowhichIPIWebsitesoffera business-support gateway for prospective foreign investors; Web sites clearly show the advantages of a · IPIcapacitytodeliverinformationdirectly location and convey a sense of the IPI's requested by prospective foreign investors. professional competence­that they understand investors' needs and will support the investment- The assessments were conducted in English, location decision process. the dominant international business language, between March and September 2008. To understand where and to what extent IPIs are achieving their objective to promote their GIPB scores are presented in the form of an location online, GIPB assessed each IPI Web site index, with 100 percent the highest possible in four key dimensions: score. Final scores were generated as a combination of an IPI's performance in the Web · Informationarchitecture:howeasyisitto site assessment (50 percent of score) and the two find country and sector-specific information inquiry-handling assessments (25 percent each). on the Web site? All regional averages were calculated on the · Design:howisinformationpresentedto basis of the scores of the national IPIs only. support the online promotion effort? · Content:howrelevantandaccurateisthe Web site assessment country and sector information for targeted Online marketing is a cost-effective way to foreign investors? promote investment in a country to companies · Promotionaleffectiveness:howwelldoesthe or consultants that are doing preliminary site- site market the location and IPI services? selection research. An IPI Web site is usually the first contact a company or consultant has with Each Web site was scored to test aspects relating a potential investment location. Best-practice IPI to the four dimensions. As the number of questions within each dimension varies, a weighting system was applied to ensure that final scores reflect the actual importance of each 1 Chapter 4 offers a more detailed description of the GIPB methodology, and Appendices F-H contain a fuller description dimension from the investor's perspective. Web of the survey forms, the beverage project and the software site content (core country information and sector development center inquiries, and how scores were calculated. chaPter 1: Global results 13 information) is the most heavily weighted Because service consistency offers important dimension (50 percent). insights into IPI capabilities, each IPI's inquiry-handling abilities were assessed twice, Inquiry-handling assessment: Methodology and scoring using a "mystery shopper" methodology. The Inquiry handling is more challenging for IPIs first assessment related to a beverage than are at least the basics of Web sites, but it is manufacturing project with a research and the core of investment promotion because it development component, and the second was a involves interacting with the potential investor software development center inquiry. and thus is the best opportunity for an IPI to influence company investment decisions. The surveys were designed to assess the IPIs' ability to respond to information requests in a The GIPB framework for assessing inquiry professional and appropriate manner that would handling defines best-practice attributes under motivate the investor to engage further with the four main characteristics or themes: IPI and ultimately invest in the location. Assessing · Availabilityandcontactability:howeasyisit an IPI's inquiry-handling capability also sheds to find the IPI online and contact a light on its core functions: the extent to which it knowledgeable project manager? understands its market, has done research on · Responsivenessandhandling:how its own location so it can inform investors, and skillfully do IPI staff engage with the ensures that its staff have the requisite project prospective investor over the telephone and management skills, knowledge, training, and by e-mail? marketing capability. · Response:howrelevant,thorough,and professional is the IPI's response to specific Similar to the Web site assessment, the content inquiries? of the responses submitted by IPIs is the most · Customercare:howwelldoestheIPIfollow heavily weighted element (55 percent). To read up to convert initial interest of an investor more about GIPB methodology see Chapter 4. into a firm lead (a further inquiry or site visit)? Global Overview: Excellence Is Emerging in All Regions GIPB 2009 found examples of exceptional capability and performance among IPIs. As a group, IPIs of the high-income economies of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) performed substantially better than IPIs in other regions (Figure 1). The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Regional Investment Agency with the total score of 32 percent ranks below Middle East and North Africa with a breakdown of 24 percent for Web site and 8 percent for inquiry handling. 14 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa of excellence in investment promotion. Many BOX 2: Budget May Not Be an Excuse for Poor middle-income countries, such as Botswana, Facilitation Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, OftenanIPIattributesitslackofresultstoitsownbudget Figure 1: OECD High-Income Countries Retain Investment constraintsoritscountry'slevelofincome.Thesereasons Facilitation Lead mightbejustifiedforanIPI'sinabilitytoundertake expensive activities such as image building and outreach and proactive promotion, complex sector strategy development, and design and production of costly marketing materials. However, facilitation is by far the least expensive and most cost-efficient of all investment promotion activities. GIPB 2009 results challenge the assumption that it takes a big budget and a rich economy to be a strategic and service-oriented facilitator. Indeed, GIPB results for a number of low-middle-income countries*1bear thisout.Forexample,MoldovaandHondurashaveforthe first time appeared among the top performers worldwide and in fact lead the best practice in their regions. Similarly, Nicaragua, a low-middle-income country, is now among the top-25performersworldwideandranked-aclosesecond (only0.6percentbehind)toCostaRica-theleading best-practice case in Latin America and the Caribbean. Another low-income economy outperforming the other players in its region is Sri Lanka. Several IPIs in Africa alsoshowthatacountry'sincomedoesnotautomatically preclude professional facilitation in investment promotion­ low-income Ghana, Senegal, and Uganda outperformed Ecuador, Lithuania, and Turkey, performed very middle-income countries like South Africa and Namibia. Mauritius ­ upper-middle-income economy - reached the well, often on tight budgets. In addition, overallscoreof67percentoutperformingseveralOECD a number--admittedly still small--of low-income countriesandleavingallCOMESAmembersbehind. countries, such as Senegal and Ghana, outperformed some OECD and other high-in- come economies. Their IPIs are not yet best *The definition of low-middle-income country is based on the lending practice but their capability is growing. category established for the International Development Association Moreover, their shortcomings might be attributed (IDA) of the World Bank Group. to limited exposure to foreign investors, and many lack a focused mandate from government. Figure 2 shows the top-performing IPIs in GIPB 2009. While only two non-OECD countries Clearly, IPIs that performed well across all three (Latvia and Costa Rica) were among the top 10, GIPB assessments (Web site and two project the top 25 had representatives from each region inquiries) had invested time and effort to do and income category except the low-income research, in particular on their key target sectors, group. develop informative materials based on the research, establish internal management Indeed, an important finding of GIPB 2009 protocols, and train and supervise staff on shows that a nation's wealth is not a determinant meeting those protocols. chaPter 1: Global results 15 Figure 2: Top National IPIs show some clustering in the 61-80 percent and 21-40 percent ranges. European and Central Asian IPI scores are widely dispersed, with IPIs in Eastern Europe generally having a very strong performance, while most IPI Web sites in Central Asia are substantially weaker. Sub-Saharan Africa shows the greatest variation, with many poor results explained primarily by the absence of the most fundamental capacity in some countries--for example, lack of Web sites or even telephone and fax connections make it very difficult for investors to contact them. Similarly, COMESA scores mostly fall within the weak category. However, on a more positive note, some IPIs, such as Mauritius, are moving into the higher performance tiers. In GIPB 2009, 19 percent of OECD IPIs achieved best-practice scores of over 80 percent (Figure 3). Europe and Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean are the regions with the greatest proportion of IPIs starting to challenge the OECD high-income countries in GIPB 2009 also suggests that the center of best terms of excellence, although they have a long practice is moving. Newer IPIs from recent FDI way to go, particularly with respect to going host economies are challenging well-established beyond the mere provision of information to IPIs. Several top-25 IPIs, including Brazil, Cyprus, actually attempt to "sell" their locations and Spain, and Turkey, have been operating for less influence the investor's decision. 44 percent of than five years. New IPIs in countries where until COMESA IPIs rank in the weak performance tier recently there was no institutionally organized and 22 percent rank in the very weak category approach to FDI promotion are coming in strongly in all regions. Figure 3: OECD High-Income Countries Provide the Only Cases of IPIs Achieving Overall Best Practice IPI Performance Varies, Investors' Needs Do Not Figure 3 shows distribution of scores across the regions. OECD IPIs tend to cluster in the 61-80 percent range. Some of the traditional best-practice IPIs are within this group, such as the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland, UK Trade & Investment, and Invest in Sweden Agency. Latin American and the Caribbean IPIs 16 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa of performance. These scores show that two- thirds of COMESA members will have to make Box 3: How the Austrian Business Agency Beat Its substantial efforts to react to investment Competition opportunities and secure more FDI. The Austrian Business Agency was the top performer In almost every region there is a marked overall, even though it was not the best performer in the differentiation in performance between individual assessments. It consistently delivered good countries. Some countries (often clustered in service, because Austria has invested time and resources specific subregions) stand out for their more into training its staff and the staff in turn has devoted dynamic approach to investment promotion. For efforts into researching, building expertise, and developing example, within COMESA, the best performance detailed material of interest to foreign investors. TheIPI'sWebsite(www.aba.gv.at)offersmultiplelanguage was achieved by islands, i.e. Mauritius, options, and most importantly, concise overviews of its Madagascar and Seychelles. In Europe and sectors with excellent downloadable brochures, along with Central Asia, the countries of Central Europe "key facts" of certain interest to investors. The key facts and the Balkans show levels of performance section of the Web site provides comparative statistics that rapidly approaching OECD IPIs. In Latin benchmark Austria second, third, or even fifth behind America, the countries of Central America also other countries. These comparative date enhance the overall credibilityofAustria'sclaimsasthedestinationofchoice. show some world-class practices. In the East Asia Austria'sinquiryhandlingwasexcellent,butnotbecauseit and the Pacific region, the countries of South submitted the best responses--the information was there East Asia are leading the way forward. The but not compiled or organized as well as that of other evidence of this year's survey suggests that good locations. The agency did well because its staff is superb practice is shifting from the traditional centers in at project management--they responded quickly to GIPB Western Europe to some of the more dynamic inquiries and could talk through projects on the telephone, conveying key pieces of information that they already knew. regions in the developing world. GIPB will Onthesoftwareproject,theprojectmanagerwas continue to monitor whether this trend continues. immediately able to advise where the key clusters were in Austria and also where competition for staff may prove to Regional Overview: be an issue (while simultaneously mentioning well-known Worlds of Investment Promotion investors and the locations of major universities with computing facilities). Unlike most IPIs, the Austrian Business Agency offered See Appendix B for full country performance list excellent "customer care." It was one of the few agencies to by region. proactively check whether responses had arrived, and staff also checked in with GIPB reviewers at appropriate times Sub-Saharan Africa: On the right track but moving to find out how "the investor" had responded and whether at different speeds there was anything else that they could supply. Only two IPIs in Africa meet investors' The Austrian Business Agency is, in short, an IPI that has substance behind the marketing--it can actually deliver a long-listing needs at the level of good practice: value-adding service to investors. Botswana and Mauritius. Many other African IPIs in the average performance tier (41-60 percent) scored well in one project inquiry but failed to respond or provided limited information for the practice have the potential to upgrade their other inquiry. Several IPIs in the Eastern Africa facilitation services if their management makes it region, in particular, are in this performance a priority to set up internal service standards and category. It seems that many African IPIs information functions, and to invest in the currently performing in the tier below good training of staff and performance monitoring. chaPter 1: Global results 17 Figure 4: Regional Performance, by GIPB Assessment Category Europe and Central Asia: A tale of two regions - close to the (All Scores Computed Over 100 Percent) top ... and to the bottom In terms of performance, IPIs in this region operate in two different leagues. IPIs in Eastern Europe, many of them less than 10 years old, benchmark themselves against and are indeed comparable to some of the best performers in Western Europe. In GIPB 2009, the vast majority of the new European Union member countries have achieved good-practice standards and show they will continue to improve. Rapidly approaching them are IPIs in the Balkan countries, all of which performed at the world average or above (scoring over 50 percent). In particular, Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia It is worth noting that most of the weakest scored over 61 percent, with a balanced performers in Africa (below 20 percent) are approach to online and offline information French-speaking countries. This may be due in provision. part to the "bias" of the English-language GIPB methodology, which is based on its need for a In contrast, IPIs in Russia and Central Asia standardized approach and the fact that English operate in a lower performance league. Only is by far the most commonly used language in Armenia made it into the good-practice tier in the international investment community. Most responding to investor information needs. The IPIs in non-English-speaking countries deal with average score for the Central Asian IPIs is only to this by having an English-language Web site 38 percent. For many of them, simple and hiring English-speaking staff. As a result, contactability via e-mail or phone is problematic. they scored well on GIPB; for example, If investors find it difficult to get in touch with the Spanish-speaking Latin American countries IPI and to obtain even the most basic of performed well, and two out of the three best information they are unlikely to pursue their performers in Africa--and among the best location interest further. performers worldwide--are French-speaking Mauritius and Senegal. Latin America and the Caribbean: The most homogeneous region For the weakest performers, simple visibility of IPIs in the Latin American and the Caribbean the IPI (that is, finding the IPI Web site) and region are the most homogenous. They have accessibility by investors (being able to contact the smallest performance spread between Web the IPI) need immediate attention if the agency site assessment and inquiry-handling scores: is to fulfill its role in investment promotion. The an average of only 21 points. Encouragingly, in facilitator role of the weakest IPIs is paradoxically the key dimension of customer care, these IPIs all the more critical, because their countries tend scored on average almost at the same level as to be those where information relevant to OECD high-income countries. Investors who investors is not easily accessible from other are long-listing locations in Latin America and sources. the Caribbean will find contacting these IPIs to 18 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Figure 5. Best-Practice/Good-Practice IPIs by Region. See Appendix B for full country performance list by region. be useful. The IPIs are clearly providing service East Asia and the Pacific: Trying to overcome history to potential investors at a level that exceeds the East Asia and the Pacific is a region with a long, global average. distinctive investment promotion tradition. The Boards of Investment and similar ministerial Costa Rica and Nicaragua are interesting cases agencies that predominate in this region (and of good performance. Costa Rica has been a South Asia) have struggled for some years to good-practice IPI for over 25 years and seems shift emphasis from their historical regulatory committed to maintaining the standards of good functions to a more balanced approach to service to continue attracting FDI. Nicaragua is investment promotion and investor servicing. the new entrant to the high performers' league. Investor facilitation is a major challenge for these In only six years, it has caught up with the best institutions--despite their efforts, none of the IPIs performers in the region. Nicaragua's online in the region has reached best-practice levels. facilitation service is now at par with the top IPIs worldwide, illustrating how a Web site with a Among the top performers in this region are basic design but the right content and marketing the long-established IPIs such as Hong Kong angle can do effective promotion. Honduras' IPI (China), Singapore and Malaysia. Brunei and is another success story in terms of facilitation. one subnational Chinese IPI, Xiamen, have performed well, consistently providing good information in the software and manufacturing exercises. chaPter 1: Global results 19 South Asia: Significant progress but a long way to go weak (15 percent), only 1 percent better than South Asia comprises only nine countries, with Sub-Saharan Africa. While most of the IPIs in IPIs similar to those in East Asia, namely, the this region are contactable (average score of 68 Boards of Investment focused on enforcing percent), the quality of response to inquiries and regulation and on overseeing incentives. customer follow-up are very poor (average 6 percent). With Sub-Saharan African IPIs Starting from a very low base in 2006, South working on rapidly improving their performance Asian IPIs have improved their overall average in dealing with potential investors, Sub-Saharan performance over the last two years by 25 Africa might overtake this region shortly. percentage points, which makes this region, along with East Asia and the Pacific, the top The Middle East and North Africa countries boast regional improver in investment facilitation in well-designed Web sites (a 73 percent average the period 2006-2008. regional score) that promote their country's image. However, IPI Web site performance falls Despite this improvement, actual performance (to an average 52 percent) when it comes to the remains relatively weak. The IPIs have finally availability of country and sector information. moved online, yet their websites still do not meet This may indicate a limited understanding of the investor information needs. The problem seems use of the Web for investment promotion. While to be that investment has been made on the being online is important, and an attractive Web website "shop window" but not in the contents of site has promotional value, investors visit the IPI the shop. In other words, the websites look good Web site to get basic country data and and are designed nicely but they do not contain sector-specific information. IPIs should revisit sufficient country and sector information for their online effort to ensure they capitalize on the investors, nor do they seek to answer questions upfront investment in Web development by that investors may have about their locations. providing suitable content to ensure that investors keep their countries in the location's South Asian IPIs perform even less well in search list. handling investors' direct inquiries. Despite repeated GIPB attempts to contact IPI staff by COMESA: Weak performance with good prospects ahead e-mail and telephone, few responses were COMESA scored 32 percent overall (see Figure received. IPIs in this region would benefit from 1) which ranks it above Sub-Saharan Africa with management giving facilitation and customer the score of 25 percent. In terms of Web site service a much higher priority in core IPI and inquiry-handling scores, Figure 4 shows that activities, as well as ensuring that staff is exposed COMESA group outperformed Sub-Saharan to investor needs and acquire at least some Africa by 2 percent on inquiry handling, and sector specialization. by 11 percent on the Web site assessment. Mauritius ­ one of the best performers Middle East and North Africa: Danger of falling further worldwide ­ improves COMESA overall score behind and sets high standards for the rest of the group The Middle East and North Africa region is one especially when it comes to overall inquiry of the weakest performing regions. Only one handling. Its consistent performance in the Web IPI, Israel's, performed at good-practice levels site and inquiry-handling assessments places (61-80 percent) thanks to its very good Web site. it near the OECD high-income country levels, The regional average for inquiry handling is very and reveals solid internal systems and 20 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa information management. Mauritius' Web site consultants may not be equally effective, evidences a robust understanding of its economy because it requires continuous work to upgrade and its competitiveness for companies in a and update content for the Web site. number of well-researched sectors, making the site an effective promotional tool. Mauritius is the Similarly, weak performance in inquiry-handling reference for best practice in COMESA. assessments demonstrates limited awareness of international business acumen. GIPB 2009 See Appendix A for COMESA IPIs performance shows that COMESA IPIs very often miss out on list. potential investment leads by not responding to investors knocking on their doors. Only Figure 6: COMESA IPIs Are Still Struggling with the Basics 5 out of 18 COMESA IPIs responded to the manufacturing inquiry. This number was even lower in the case of the software project since only 4 COMESA IPIs responded to the inquiry. A very weak score of 11 percent on response shows that many IPIs struggle with responding to investors' queries and, as a consequence, may not encourage foreign investors considering their countries as a destination. In addition, most of the IPIs which react to inquiries do so without pursuing a broader promotional objective--that is, to establish an ongoing relationship with the investor and make efforts to win the investment project. In many cases it seems that replying to the investor inquiry is not seen as a potential Online Promotion Has Improved, but investment entering the IPI pipeline, but simply Customer Inquiries Remain a Challenge the performance of a bureaucratic task. Figure 6 shows that a vast majority of COMESA Some performers within the group, i.e. Kenya, IPIs still fail to understand that potential investors Madagascar, Malawi and Uganda, achieved expect their Web sites to demonstrate that the IPI very uneven scores in the software and thoroughly knows the location being promoted, manufacturing project inquiries. While one understands the nature of the foreign company's inquiry was professionally handled, the other business, and has a sophisticated understanding may have not received a response. This may of international business-location rationale. signify that while there is internal capacity to COMESA Web sites are visually appealing and provide quality facilitation, other factors may well-designed, but they do not convey much need attention, such as internal systems for substance. This is evidenced by average scores knowledge management, different levels of in two key aspects of a Web site: content preparedness for the job by IPI staff, or limited (40 percent) and promotional effectiveness oversight by management to ensure that all (48 percent). Moreover, these scores prove that it investors receive similar service standards. It is essential for IPIs to build an in-house capacity seems that there is a potential for the average to develop and maintain Web sites with country performers to improve their scores, if the IPIs' and sector content. Outsourcing these tasks to management sets facilitation as a priority. chaPter 1: Global results 21 Figure 7: Major Improvers Since 2006: Croatia and Botswana Lead the Way Unless IPIs improve investor facilitation, foreign For those Sub-Saharan African IPIs that were evaluated in investors may bypass them, hiring instead 2006 and 2008,2 the direction is positive local consultants or experts who can provide Most African IPIs included for the first time in the needed information. In such cases, IPIs may GIPB 2009 are in countries where information is not meet their fundamental objective of being difficult to obtain on- and offline. Some of these the focal point for their country for investment countries are experiencing political or military information. conflict or have recently emerged from conflict. The performance of their IPIs is perhaps more Good News: Facilitation Standards important than that of IPIs elsewhere, because Are Rising they are often the only source of information for foreign companies. Nevertheless, these IPIs Of the 95 IPIs that were surveyed in both 2006 clearly struggle against difficult circumstances and 2008, some 66 IPIs saw an improvement and the inclusion of these more difficult countries in their performance with an overall average improvement in score of 14 percentage points. A further seven IPIs recorded the same 2 It should be noted that the number of IPIs from Sub-Saharan performance in both years. Twenty-five of the Africa assessed in 2006 was 23, while in 2008 this number was ninety-five IPIs saw a decline in performance. increased to 46, including several IPIs with no Web presence, or that we were unable to contact, such as Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, the Comoros, and Eritrea. In fact, if one compares the 2006 and 2008 overall performance for only those IPIs from Sub-Saharan Africa that participated in both surveys, the region improved by 7 percent. 22 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa is undoubtedly the main reason why the overall online information facilitation service, which did Sub-Saharan average performance declined not exist at the time of the 2006 assessment. between 2006 and 2008. On the contrary, the Romania also increased its performance due performance of 11 COMESA members3 to improvements in the quality of the country (including 9 members located in Sub-Saharan and sector information offered in its Web site. Africa) improved by 8 percent between 2006 Latvia has outperformed most of the IPIs in high- and 2008. What is more, three COMESA income countries, and some of the traditional members, i.e. Malawi (32%), Rwanda (16%), and good performers. The average Web site score Egypt (14%) are among the top 25 world for Eastern European countries alone is 85 improvers. It is important to emphasize, percent (versus 41 percent for Central Asia). however, that many COMESA IPIs started from a very low base and score improvement was Europe and Central Asia is one of the regions primarily due to improved Web sites. that has made the most progress since the 2006 GIPB. As noted above, it would not be surprising Botswana is a star performer in GIPB 2009. It to see IPIs Eastern Europe and the Balkans improved its overall score to an excellent 70 overtake the more established IPIs in Europe percent, an almost 140 percent improvement over the next years. To achieve best-practice (Figure 7). Moreover it improved its Web site status, Eastern European and Balkan IPIs should substantially by making it more business-focused make their strongest effort in sales (making the and user friendly. Botswana does a very good business case), customer care, and follow-up. job of integrating two different information needs: those of foreign investors and those of Latin America and the Caribbean made gains in customer local exporters. Botswana's Web site reveals a service good understanding of client needs. Within the Latin America and the Caribbean region, Central American IPIs have shown the Malawi is another top improver among most improvement since 2006--in fact, almost COMESA members. It has moved from having all IPIs in Central America perform in the no Web site to a Web site that ranks in the good average or good performance tiers. It is equally performance tier. Malawi Investment Promotion remarkable that some of the better performing Agency's Web Site has well laid out content with IPIs (Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua) adequately detailed information allowing for operate in countries with limited government good readability. resources. IPIs in Europe and Central Asia made substantial progress Costa Rica's performance in 2006 was average, in their Web sites but its overall score of 74 percent in 2008 has The most impressive improvement in Europe clearly moved it toward the best-practice range; and Central Asia was from Croatia, with its its gain was due to improvement in the design score increasing by 45 percentage points. Gains and content of its Web site and by providing a by Croatia were driven solely by an enhanced very strong response to the software inquiry. Ecuador also moved from the middle ranks toward best practice, increasing its overall score by 31 points to 71 percent. 3 11 out of 18 COMESA members were surveyed both in 2006 and 2008. These comprise Congo, Dem. Rep., Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Swaziland, Uganda, and Zambia. chaPter 1: Global results 23 Box 4: Ecuador: Facilitation as Strategy The Corporación de Promoción de Exportaciones e Inversiones del Middle East and North Africa IPIs improved their Web sites, Ecuador,CORPEI,Ecuador'snationalIPI,wascreated but a bureaucratic approach stifles interaction with potential in1997withthemandatetopromoteexportsaswellas investors foreign and local direct investment in Ecuador. In 2001, the The Middle East and North Africa is a region agency put in place a department to deal with the improvement of the investment climate and proactively where every country has an IPI, and where promote investment in non-oil sectors. However, the most governments seem eager to attract FDI country'spoliticalinstability,thedeteriorationofitsimage to diversify their economies to create jobs for abroad,aswellasresourcelimitationsinspiredCORPEI's their young, growing, and often highly skilled management to develop a strategy of reactive investment populations. Jordan is the only IPI that has made promotion. This strategy aimed at maximizing the improvements since 2006. There seem to be potential of local investors, responding to foreign investors who showed interest in Ecuador, and supporting existing two types of IPI in the region: the newly created, investors to encourage re-investment (aftercare). small, purely promotional body, and the large Followinganassessmentofinvestors'needs,asmall, organization that often originated as a dedicated unit of five officers was set up. It reports directly ministerial department and still has some toCORPEI'svicepresidentanddealswithpre-and regulatory activities. However, performance post-investment services. The unit focused on two throughout the region is similar. The quality of investment promotion vehicles: Website.BasedonaninternallistofFrequentlyAsked Web sites has improved since 2006, and an Questionsandagoodassessmentofcompetingcountries' increased focus on the service sector, particularly IPI'Websites,CORPEIprioritizedthein-house financial services, might indicate that the development of the information a foreign investor would character of the IPIs in the region could be need to set up a business in the country. A senior changing. Yet, the region has no global top investment promotion officer was responsible for updated performers, and inquiry handling remains less investment climate information, in-depth sector information, and opportunities for investment that were than customer friendly. postedregularlyonCORPEI'ssite.Availabilityof quality information on the site was part of the South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific are moving in the image-building strategy to lessen country risk perceptions. right direction, but more needs to be done Facilitationofinvestorinquiries.CORPEItraineditsteam Overall, Asia has improved its performance by to provide fast, complete, consistent, and tailored 25 percentage points in the last two years. Eight information to the approximately 400 investor inquiries received each year. Soon the team became specialized along of the top improvers worldwide are in this sectors and project types that allowed better management region: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and more efficient response times. A key element for the Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Sri teamwasthecleardefinitionofeachmember's Lanka and Thailand. National IPIs in East Asia responsibilities for each project and potential investor, and the Pacific may well have improved even which improved Knowledge Management, service quality, more than 25 percent had their regional score and appropriate follow-up, and at the same avoided duplications. not included several newly created subnational In 2008, the Government of Ecuador decided to boost IPIs in China and Indonesia. proactive investment promotion by creating a program called "Invest Ecuador". "With a solid budget, well-trained Sri Lanka was the most improved IPI in South professionalsandastrongreactivecapacitytoinvestors' Asia. It increased its score in 2008 by 29 points, interest, Ecuador can effectively move to proactive mainly due to an improved Web site that offers promotion,"saidRicardoEstrada,CORPEI'sExecutive President. detailed, reliable, and current data. Although its inquiry handling remains below average, it did increase that score by 18 points by providing a well-researched answer to the one inquiry to 24 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Box 5: Securing Business Service Outsourcing in Nicaragua through Professional Facilitation TheBusinessServiceOutsourcing(BSO)Industryisone ofthemostdynamicindustriesintoday'sworld.Thesearch which it responded. Its failure to respond to both for the right combination of talent and competitive cost inquiries may point to weak internal systems, structure has been the driving force for the growth of the industry. which may result in losing investment In2006,Sitel, a leader in business outsourcing, was acquired opportunities. by ClientLogic and, seeking to expand operations in Central America,thenewcompany--contactedPRONicaraguain Also in South Asia, Afghanistan deserves special January2007forfurtherdetailsonthelocalBSOindustry. mention--it increased its inquiry-handling score Twoyearsearlier,PRONicaraguahadcarriedouta by 26 points to earn a score of 40 percent, and benchmark study of the Central American region to identify Nicaragua'smajorcompetitiveadvantagesforoutsourcing. its Web site was found to be very strong, Therefore, recognizing the value of attracting a achieving a score of 72 percent. Afghanistan's world-renownedBSOplayertothecountrytoraise first inquiry-handling result, on the beverage visibility,PRONicaraguaassignedaspecialteamtorespond inquiry, was extremely well researched and to Sitel'sinformationrequests.PRONicaraguaworked solidly backed by current data from the private closelywiththeNationalFreeZoneCommission,which sector such as labor costs and property data. provided additional governmental support and financial resources for promotional activities related to the Clearly the inquiry played to Afghanistan's attraction of Sitel, and authorized fiscal incentives to strengths, and the IPI demonstrated that it increase the attractiveness of the investment opportunity. can and does interact very professionally with PRONicaraguaalsoreachedouttoalreadyestablished prospective investors in projects relating to its privatesectorinvestorswhohadhelpedincreaseNicaragua's target markets. Afghanistan is a case where the credibility as a good location for investment and provided professionalism of the IPI can have an impact on detailed information about their operations there. After more than a year of preparing tailored information the country's image. The Board of Investment of packages, arranging productive agendas for both Sitel Bangladesh achieved a significant improvement executives and clients, and carrying out a job fair with the in its Web site by some 34 percentage points objective of testing the English skills of Nicaraguan between 2006 and 2008. Cambodia is also a workers, with Sitel's direct participation throughout the remarkable example of a low-income country process, the company inaugurated its first Contact Center running up in the scores with an improvement of operationinApril2008,withaninvestmentof$2.5million andthecreationof500newjobs.InNovember2008,Sitel some 20 percentage points in its performance announced an expansion of its operations in Managua since 2006. withanadditionalinvestmentof$2.5millionand another450jobs. However, elsewhere in Asia, performance has Lookingback,PRONicaraguaidentifiesthreeelementsas remained weak, with average overall scores of crucial in influencing Sitel to decide in their favor: Principal 40 percent in East Asia and the Pacific and 36 among these was an ability to respond to Sitel's inquiries in a waythatclearlydemonstratedNicaragua'spotentialforthe percent in South Asia. These weak results are successful development of the sector and of the Sitel project primarily explained by a failure to respond to in particular. This was supported by partnering with other inquiries. government institutions and the private sector, and by PRONicaragua'scloseandconstantfollow-upwithSitel. Sitel's executives clearly agree: "Instrumental in Sitel's decision to make its initial investment in Nicaragua was the information, advice, and support provided by PRONicaragua.Theagency'sresources,contacts,and assistance have been an important part of Sitel's initial success during its first year in Nicaragua, and played an important part in the decision to move forward with additional investment in 2009," acknowledged Val Vandegrift, Sitel's Site Director- Nicaragua. chaPter 1: Global results 25 PrIorItIes For movInG Forward · Focus and substantiate promotion efforts. Foreign companies search for information related to their industries and needs. They need to understand the viability in an investment destination, and to do this, they require specific data relating to their sector and proposed operation, be it manufacturing or services. To provide this, IPIs need to adopt an investment strategy that reflects their comparative and competitive advantages; this often means adopting a sector strategy and providing substantive information on those sectors. Faced with limited resources, IPIs should give priority to facilitating investments aimed at the competitive sectors. · Constantly source and refresh information. IPIs need to focus on building in-house capacity to gather and consolidate relevant information--on players, sector composition, and key selling points--on the country, economy, and targeted sectors. IPIs need to constantly anticipate foreign companies' needs and ensure that they have the needed information at hand. They should develop networks with other in-country organizations that could provide information. · Introduce regular training and quality assurance programs. IPI staff must understand that foreign companies, particularly from OECD high-income countries, often have more demanding professional service standards than those in many other regions. IPIs need to invest in staff training, for front-line staff in how to interact with foreign investors (honing sales skills and customer service) and for professional staff in research, and knowledge building and presentation. When staff turnover occurs, training new staff in these areas should be a priority. Requesting customer feedback on IPI services is a way for IPIs to check whether their services are professional and add value. · Understand the competition and benchmark location factors. IPIs should get to know their competition and understand how their location compares with competing ones, and with investor norms. If it is falling short, an IPI should make the improvements in its purview and lobby relevant areas of government for improvement in others. 26 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa chaPter 2: what does It take to sell a locatIon onlIne? Assessing IPI Web sites To assess the extent to which the IPI Web sites credibly promote a location and provide foreign companies a gateway to more information or IPI support, the GIPB used four indicators: information architecture, design, content, and promotional effectiveness. Best-practice sites clearly show the advantages of an investment location. TheyalsoconveytheIPI'sprofessionalcompetence:itsunderstandingofthetargetcustomer, of the factors influencing the decision on an investment location, and how the IPI can influence selection of an investment site. IPI Web Site Assessment Results Reveal showing that an IPI understands--and therefore Disparities can fulfill--foreign companies' needs. A country's IPI Web site is like a shop window, Early IPI Web sites, even best-practice ones, presenting information to entice foreign investment. GIPB tended to resemble each other, and 2009 for COMESA found that many IPI Web sites look good, less-experienced IPIs adopted similar looks. but content needs to be improved Now, sites with individualistic design are Investment promotion has moved online. Out of emerging; the best ones offer increased 18 COMESA IPIs assessed in GIPB 2009, 3 IPIs interactivity and functionality--always keeping did not have an IPI in place, and thus, achieved in mind that the potential investor should find 0 percent scores throughout the GIPB 2009 needed information quickly, within three clicks assessment. Most COMESA Web sites have quite of the home page. an attractive design and demonstrate technical competence. Relatively few of them, however, Figure 8 shows the 7 top-performing COMESA provide concise, relevant information Web sites. All sites performed well across three chaPter 2: what does It take to sell a locatIon onlIne? 27 Figure 8: Top 7 COMESA Web Sites of the four dimensions on which they were effective promotion of their locations and start assessed: information architecture, design, using their Web sites as a powerful marketing and promotional effectiveness. However, in the tool of their countries. In many cases the Web core assessment dimension, content, only 5 site is used as the institutional portal for the IPI IPIs ranked in the good performance tier. Top instead of the country portal for business and COMESA Web sites meet users' needs with a investment. clear navigation system and design. However, in order to put the web efforts to effective Best COMESA Web Site Mix promotional use, COMESA Web sites should present more country information with overviews What would the best-of-COMESA Web site of key industries, and clearly state what services look like? It would be a compilation of the key the IPIs provide for foreign investors (Box 6). strengths of four best Web sites that achieved the Moreover, in order to reach the best-practice highest scores in GIPB 2009 for the region. standards, COMESA IPIs would have to focus on The Information Architecture of KenInvest's Web Site (http://www.investmentkenya.com) KenInvest'sWebsitehasaclearlayout. Information provided on the Web site is organized in a coherent, consistent and logical structure. Information architecture of this Web site allows users to quickly identify key pieces of information crucial for making an informed decision about the directionoftheirinvestment.KenInvest's Web site is also easy to navigate. 28 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa The Design of the Economic Development Board of Madagascar's Web Site (http://www.edbm.gov.mg) The Web site of the Economic Development Board of Madagascar makes a very good useofgraphicswhichenhanceMadagascar's image for potential investors and give the Web site a business-oriented look. Moreover, the Web site organizes information in a "web friendly" way with the choice of color and text enhancing readability for the users. The Content of the Board of Investment of Mauritius' Web Site (http://www.investmauritius.com) The Board of Investment of Mauritius clearly understands that businesses need reliable, current data in order to make location assessments. The information on its Web site uses reputable external sources to support any statements. In addition, the Board of Investment of Mauritius makes an effort to regularly update the information and provides information for foreign businesses that is both relevant and useful. The Promotional Attractiveness of the Seychelles Investment Bureau's Web Site (http://www.sib.gov.sc) TheSeychellesInvestmentBureau'sWebsite shows how an IPI could effectively promote itslocation.Seychelles'"13Advantagesin Investing in Seychelles", as well as a section on Investment Incentives and International Agreements are a practical source for investors making decisions about the direction of their investment. chaPter 2: what does It take to sell a locatIon onlIne? 29 COMESA Online: · NicaraguainLatinAmericaandthe Ahead of Sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean with 92.3 percent Moving Forward · SriLankainSouthAsiawith91.1percent · IsraelinMiddleEastandNorthAfricawith Worldwide IPI Web site performance was 88.9 percent generally strong in GIPB 2009--in fact, an · BotswanainSub-SaharanAfricawith88.8 average 22 percent worldwide Web site percent. improvement drove increases in overall GIPB performance. Figure 9 shows scores by group. It is important to emphasize that the COMESA score was significantly lowered by the scores of Figure 9: How Do Web Sites Compare? three countries that do not have Web sites. Had these three countries not been counted in the overall COMESA average, the score would have improved by 10 percent. Consequently, COMESA would have outperformed South Asia, and Middle East and North Africa, and would have had the same score as East Asia and the Pacific. As Figure 10 shows, 22 percent of assessed COMESA Web sites fall within the very weak tier as compared to more than 40 percent of the Sub-Saharan Africa Web sites that fall within the same category. The greatest proportion of COMESA members, with an average score of COMESA Web sites rank in the weak 47 percent, performed better than Sub-Saharan performance category. These results draw Africa achieving 11 percent more on the Web attention to the importance of improving the site assessment. COMESA scores are also higher Figure 10: Best-Practice Web Sites Are Emerging Across All Regions than the scores of Sub-Saharan Africa when it comes to content and promotional effectiveness, which accounted for 20 and 14 percent, respectively. In addition, COMESA scores are approaching South Asia's level. There was evidence of best practice in all regions except for COMESA. As Figure 9 shows, OECD IPI Web sites lead in the percentage of best-practice sites, but sites in Europe and Central Asia also performed very well. The top performers in each region were: · CzechRepublicamongOECDhigh-income countries with 97.4 percent · LatviainEuropeandCentralAsiawith93 percent 30 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Box 6: What Do the IPIs of the Czech Republic, France, Latvia, Austria, and Nicaragua Have in Common? All have a best-practice Web site. Each site presents information to prospective investors in a clear, concise, and engaging way. Each states who they are, what they target, why their locations are optimal investment destinations, and how they can help. The highest scoring Web site, Czech Invest (www.czechinvest.org), is provided in six languages, and has a clear navigation structure and topical news. Excellent sector content is accompanied by testimonials from satisfied investors. Invest in France's site (www.invest-in-france.org) offers interactive, cutting-edge design as well as easy-to-read, substantive content on business sectors. The home page opens with a sophisticated business case, using existing investors to show how the IPI helps an investor to make a project happen. chaPter 2: what does It take to sell a locatIon onlIne? 31 Box 6: What Do the IPIs of the Czech Republic, France, Latvia, Austria, and Nicaragua Have in Common? Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (www.liaa.gov.lv) uses a proven format to make its case: success stories that target a key aspect of the location. Latvia was one of the very few IPIs to address specific business concerns such as return on investment. Austrian Business Agency's site (www.aba.gv.at) offers a simple architecture, good sector segmentation, and innovative mapping technologies. Key information can be found quickly and downloaded if required. The site is offered in seven languages. ProNicaragua's site (www.pronicaragua.org) covers all the information needed to convince foreign companies to take a closer look at Nicaragua. Engaging animation features (unlike on other such sites, it loads quickly), including animated navigation bands on the home page, take users to key statistics, sectors, and testimonials, including videos from existing investors. 32 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa quality of the Web sites and, consequently, call links on the home page banner (Figure 11). for the increase of the number of Web sites Like many IPIs, Botswana's does export falling in the good performance tier. Moreover, promotion along with investment attraction. It as there is only limited online information avoided a common mistake of IPI Web sites available to investors, IPIs should put resources with this type of mandate, in which the design into filling in this information gap. It is crucial to makes it hard to see what information is specific make sure that weak performers avoid falling for which customer. On Botswana's Web site, into a negative cycle: paucity of thorough and two prominent banners on the home page positive information fails to pique the interest of indicate where a local manufacturer or an foreign companies or overcome their reluctance investor should click for export or investment to invest there, and low volumes of FDI reinforce information. investors' poor perceptions of the region. In order to boost the effectiveness of their Web GIPB 2009 shows, however, that some effort sites, some IPIs are using the growing availability may pay off quickly. Malawi could serve as an and sophistication of online mapping tools to example of a low-income country whose IPI has display information that is highly relevant to moved from no online presence to having a potential investors. Unfortunately, the number very good Web site. Malawi joined the online of IPI Web sites doing so is relatively low. This is community with a Web site score just under 70 disappointing, especially when geography and percent. Its site has a glossy online presence with location are an inherent investor consideration. good architecture and design, and it provides Maps convey certain information far more the type of information that companies request. efficiently and effectively than text alone. For The Web site (www.malawi-invest.net) shows example, advances in technology promise that the IPI has put considerable effort into three-dimensional representations of cities, researching sectors with the greatest potential to which could enable IPIs to add properties and attract foreign investment. A mapping tool city fly-throughs to their sites, vastly enhancing shows where key industries are located, and an the investor experience. GIPB research identified indicator of operating costs is offered with five types of mapping functionality already used utilities tariffs listed. by IPIs (Box 7) to influence investment decisions. Botswana, one of the most improved Web sites overall, made major improvements to its site Key Aspects of Online Promotion between 2006 and 2008. Its score jumped by 49 Remain Ineffective points, moving the Web site from below average to best practice. The site (www.bedia. Information Architecture and Design are of Good Quality, co.bw) is business focused and user friendly--it but Content and Promotional Effectiveness Lag Behind makes understanding the investment process as While many COMESA IPIs have done well on easy as "1, 2, 3" with innovative use of quick the basics of Web site information architecture and design, a majority is still struggling to Figure 11: Botswana Makes Investing as Easy as 1, 2, 3 provide the core service that potential investors look for ­ business-oriented information presenting opportunities for investors. This is a worldwide trend, IPIs achieved an average score of 71 percent and 72 percent in the categories chaPter 2: what does It take to sell a locatIon onlIne? 33 Box 7: Types of Promotion Investment Mapping Static location maps simply show a static map of a location on a Web page or as a download. The maps show the major centers of population or infrastructure, or the position of the investment location relative to others. Examples of this type of mapping were found on the Uganda Investment Authority site (www.ugandainvest.com), Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (www.sario.sk), and St. Lucia National Development Corporation (www.stluciandc.com). It is important that static maps are of high quality, so they can be easily read and printed or copied and pasted into other documents. Paper maps that are scanned and uploaded often are difficult to read. Sector clusters and company location maps let the IPI deliver significant value to potential investors who seek to identify areas within locations that specialize in a certain industry or contain a number of blue chip international companies. This type of map can be seen on the Think London site (www.thinklondon.com) and on sector downloads on the Czech Invest site (www.czechinvest.org). Showing sector clusters also demonstrates that an IPI has a particular focus on those sectors. Interactive maps allow the user to navigate around the map and zoom in and out on specific areas. Zooming in allows more detailed information to be displayed and makes the map more engaging. Examples of this approach are found on the State of Qatar Investment Department site (www.investinqatar.com.qa) and Invest New Zealand site (www.investmentnz.govt.nz). The functionality to produce such maps is now available, through products such as Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth. 34 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Static maps with layer controls allow the user to highlight certain features by turning on and off different layers of information, such as the road network. Examples of this can be found on the Web sites of the Agencia Nacional de Desarrollo de Inversiones (Argentina) (www.prosperar.gov.ar) and MIDAS, Manchester (United Kingdom) Investment and Development Agency Service (www.investinmanchester.com). Spatial decision support systems are the culmination of some of the above functionalities, enabling potential investors to query databases for relevant information and map the results to show a number of location options. Users first select demographic and labor market indicators that are favorable to their investment and then select those areas that meet other criteria, such as being within a certain distance of an international airport. While implementation of this functionality is limited, Invest in Austria (www.aba.gv.at) has a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) interface that allows potential investors to make similar queries. The resulting maps are supported by links to show the number of companies in each region, allowing the user to see which areas meet their criteria and other companies that operate there. chaPter 2: what does It take to sell a locatIon onlIne? 35 of information architecture and design, Figure 12: The Performance Gap Between OECD High-Income, respectively. This alone, however, does not COMESA and Non-OECD High-Income IPIs: Web Sites translate a Web site into a tool for investment promotion. GIPB results show that most IPIs outside the OECD struggle with the key Web site aspects of content and promotional effectiveness (Figure 12). When it comes to the informational content investors are looking for, OECD IPIs achieved an average score of 84 percent, while the next highest average was 68 percent for Europe and Central Asia, and the lowest was 30 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa. In this category COMESA scored 40 percent (Figure 13). In terms of promotional effectiveness of the information on should also guide an IPI's allocation of time and the Web site, COMESA obtained a score of 48 resources for effective in-house Web content percent. The promotional aspect of COMESA development and maintenance. Web sites could be greatly improved if they included well-crafted reasons why their countries Figure 13 shows that COMESA outperformed are the right investment destinations for specific Sub-Saharan Africa in all four dimensions of the sectors. Most COMESA Web sites list general Web site assessment (information architecture, aspects about the economy but do not provide design, content and promotional effectiveness). targeted, company-oriented content on selected However, the COMESA group still needs industries where they can demonstrate significant improvement in all dimensions to competitiveness. COMESA Web sites should reach best practice. communicate the services that the IPI offers in a business-friendly, non-bureaucratic manner. Figure 13: Performance Across the Four Web Site Dimensions Most importantly, COMESA Web sites should display detailed, updated and accurate contact information (telephone and e-mail). While designing their Web site strategies, COMESA IPIs should think from the perspective of a foreign investor who is considering several countries in the region as potential locations. For example, what information would investors like to see when they type "agribusiness in Madagascar" in Google? This way of thinking should guide an IPI on what type of information should be available on the Web site and how it should be packaged so that it is appealing for a business audience. In addition, this approach 36 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa The score of 48 percent on promotional would find the Web site is to already know the effectiveness does not fully reflect the differences Web site address. There is, however, also good in performance within COMESA. Members drive news. Several countries, i.e. Kenya, Malawi, at different speeds and fall into different Mauritius, Rwanda, Sudan, and Uganda reached categories, particularly when it comes to the best practice by ensuring that their Web sites are subcategory measuring the effectiveness of the easy to identify from an Internet search. Web site at selling the location to business, and use of comparative data (promotional effectiveness). Only one IPI, the Seychelles Investment Bureau, scored 75 percent on promotional effectiveness which ranks it in the good performance tier. Only four countries, i.e. Swaziland, Uganda, Djibouti and Kenya, managed to achieve an average score on promotional effectiveness. All other countries ranked in either weak or very weak categories. These scores show that many COMESA IPIs may not understand well how they can add marketing value to the information they provide or what factors investors consider when making an investment decision. An IPI that is unable to demonstrate its unique access to local knowledge and its understanding of its customers may not be able to add value to the investor's site-selection process. This pattern shows that COMESA IPIs need to acquire solid knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of their locations, as well as those of their competitors. COMESA IPIs may need to rethink their role as marketers and invest in strategy and staff training in order to convey a clear business case supporting investment in the country. Finally, the results of GIPB 2009 show that COMESA IPIs have an overall average Web site prominence. The category of web prominence measures the ease of finding the IPI's Web site when searching with terms such as "invest" or "business" and the country's name in major search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo). GIPB found that many IPI Web sites could only be found by typing in an IPI's full name, and often these names did not include the country name. For a number of IPIs, the only way an investor chaPter 2: what does It take to sell a locatIon onlIne? 37 QuIck wIns For eFFectIve onlIne PromotIon The following tips will make for Web sites improvements that will have a positive effect on investment promotion. · Convert the IPI Web site into your key promotional and facilitation tool. The IPI Web site is probably the first interaction with the country for the foreign investor. Being online is the first step, but is not enough. A beautifully designed Web site alone will not sell the location. The key to getting promotional value out of the IPI Web site is providing the type of information the investor is seeking in a professional way. · Manage the Web site budget efficiently. Web sites are not a one-time outsourced design effort. Funds must also cover site development; research, content development, regular updating; and ongoing Web hosting. · Ensure that IPI management understands the importance of and adequately assigns responsibility for the Web site. An investment promotion officer with marketing knowledge (not the webmaster who is usually an information technology staff) should be responsible for content development and Web site maintenance. · Get IPI contact information right. Contact information­telephone number, e-mail and street addresses­or links to the information, must be accurate, complete, and clearly visible on the home page. If information appears in multiple places on the Web site, it should be consistent. · Avoid using free, non-proprietary e-mail domains such as Google and Yahoo. This implies a lack of IPI professionalism, credibility, or permanence, and a company's e-mail system may filter out responses from such addresses. · Ensure search engine optimization by listing the IPI under common search terms such as country name and terms like "business" and "invest." Many IPIs appear on international search engines only if the full IPI name is entered; potential investors are unlikely to know the name. · Refine site architecture to make navigation clear. Headers or side bars should quickly lead busy investors to the location information they need. Useful topics include "About Us," "Key Sectors," "Business Costs," "How to Set Up," "Contacts," "Other Investors," and "Investor Services." · Make the content clear, consistent, and readable, in common international business languages. Basic information should be prominent on the home page and other content should be targeted and succinct so that users can learn a lot just by scanning. · Most importantly, make the content relevant to investors. Web sites need to convey specific promotional and informational messages that are structured around sectors of the economy most likely to attract investment and that show why companies should invest in these sectors. · Make the content credible, so it will convince a user to take a second look at the location. Do not just claim your location is best, use statistics, testimonials, news stories, and images to prove that it is. · Make information fast to download, because business people will not wait for slow sites. · List IPI services for investors in a way that shows the value added. Descriptions should not 38 focus on an IPI's bureaucratic or regulatory activities but on how it can help an investor. Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa chaPter 3: resPondInG to Investors' InFormatIon InQuIrIes Assessing inquiry handling To provide a balanced view of the real abilities of each IPI, GIPB evaluated each agency twice--first via a manufacturing research and development inquiry and then with a software engineering inquiry. ThesurveysassessedtheIPIs'abilitytorespondtorequestsforinformationinaprofessional andappropriatemanner--andinawaythatwouldlikelyincreasetheinvestor'smotivationto engage further with the IPI and ultimately invest in the location. AnassessmentofanIPI'sabilitytomanageinvestmentinquiriesalsoprovidesaninsightinto many of its core functions. Inquiry handling is not only about how an IPI interacts with an investor but also the extent to which an IPI understands its market, does research into its own location so it can respond to investors, and ensures its staff has project management skills, knowledge, training, and marketing capability. National Rankings Reveal Substantial strong competition from Latin America and the Variation in Global Capability Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia had several best-practice IPIs in the top 25. Below Inquiry handling is at the core of investment promotion. It this tier, the service provided to investors was enables an IPI to influence company perceptions and win inconsistent. COMESA as a group scored in the investment projects--but it remains a stumbling block for very weak performance tier with the overall score many IPIs of 16 percent. The only member that reached A clear top tier of IPIs emerged from the GIPB the level of best practice in COMESA is inquiry-handling assessments (Figure 14); IPIs Mauritius. with scores 75 percent and higher provide a consistently high level of service in both inquiries. The results of GIPB 2009 demonstrate that only IPIs scoring 65-75 percent also provide excellent 29 IPIs scored above 50 percent--meaning that service. The OECD high-income countries once 84 percent of assessed IPIs worldwide failed to again dominated the top positions but there was score at least 50 percent, and indicating that the chaPter 3: resPondInG to Investors' InFormatIon InQuIrIes 39 Box 8: How Brazil Delivered First-Class Inquiry-Handling Service The Agência Brasileira de Promoção de Exportações e Investimentos (APEX)scored82.7percentforitsinquiry-handling efforts and ranked second overall. APEX would have majority of IPIs are unable to provide an beaten top-ranked Austria had it matched on the second adequate level of support to companies in the inquiry its level of performance on the first inquiry. investment process. Brazil excelled in the quality of its responses and its level of customer care after a response was submitted. Both Figure 14: Top IPIs in Inquiry Handling submissions highlighted key industry players, labor availability and costs, and where graduates are trained. The beverage submission was rounded out with an excellent conclusion, summarizing all previous information and clearly showing how Brazil would meet any beverage manufacturer requirements. In fact, the beverage submission was particularly impressive, and earned Brazil the highest score (88 percent) in the beverage inquiry. The submission revealed the winning formula for investment promotion: It responded specifically to the questions asked. It provided relevant, comprehensive, and substantiated statistical and industry trend data to support its claims. Brazil even provided beverage consumption patterns by industry segment along with forecasts at the state level. It displayed organizational professionalism by meeting deadlines and providing a well-constructed report. And it exemplified promotional sophistication with its inclusion of a business case justifying why an investor would thrive in Brazil. Brazil did not perform quite as well in the second (softwaredevelopment)inquiry.Onemightassumethat GIPB 2009 shows that IPIs that performed well this is because Brazil has more experience with agribusiness delivered excellent service in both inquiries. or manufacturing projects. But a closer look at the results Some COMESA members, i.e. Kenya, shows key variations in staff performance, especially in Madagascar, and Uganda, scored in the initial interactions between investor and IPI. GIPB could average performance tier while responding to sometimes contact the IPI easily but sometimes not, and one inquiry, but received much worse scores some project managers were more responsive than others. while responding to the second inquiry. In some Brazil's performance in each inquiry-handling assessment cases, a disparity between two scores may reflect an IPI's experience and priorities in one inquiry field or the other, more than how staff managed each inquiry. However, the example of Brazil (Box 8) demonstrates that very often weak performance in one of the inquiries is due to an IPI's unbalanced service quality. Inquiry-Handling Capability Is Growing in Middle-Income Regions The variation in performance in Brazil's case may be caused by OECD IPIs again showed that they offer satisfactory inquiry-handling processes within the agency. investment facilitation, but expertise in Latin America and This is common among IPIs and indicates that IPIs must Eastern Europe is growing work harder to ensure service quality. They should OECD high-income countries achieved an monitor if e-mails are being answered, particularly when average score of 53 percent in inquiry handling, they use a non-proprietary e-mail domain, and if front-line staff perform well: Do they answer the phones promptly? Do they know how to direct calls? If not, they may need additional training. Likewise, IPIs need to ensure that all project managers follow agency protocols in working with investors, have expert knowledge of the region and sectors being promoted, and familiarity with other core areas. followed most closely by Latin America and the Figure 16 shows how, outside the OECD Caribbean (37 percent) and Europe and high-income countries, IPIs often fail to respond Central Asia (31 percent). As Figure 15 shows, adequately to investor inquiries or to deal with each region's performance was fairly consistent the more complex customer care aspect of in the two (beverage and software) inquiries, following up with the potential investor. except for South Asia's, where IPIs may have been more prepared for the manufacturing Figure 16: The Performance Gap Between OECD High-Income, inquiry based on their historically strong COMESA and Non-OECD High-Income IPIs: Inquiry Handling agricultural industries. COMESA scores for two inquiries were also consistent (16 percent for both beverage and software). The overall average score of 16 percent places COMESA in the very weak performance tier, however, still ahead of Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East and North Africa. Often IPIs fail to seize opportunities--and investors--that come to them GIPB found that a majority of IPIs were unable to provide information or advice to an investor beyond what appeared on the IPI Web site. They clearly had neither identified likely clients, nor done the research required to Figure 17 illustrates regional results of four respond to specific information requests from inquiry-handling components. On simple those clients, nor identified the strengths and contactability, some regions' IPIs earned low weaknesses of their location in terms of the scores even though, with today's mobile investor's needs. telecommunications and the Internet, there is no excuse for an IPI being uncontactable from Figure 15: Regional Performance in Overall Inquiry Handling, and abroad. A related problem with contactability, as by Inquiry (All Scores Computed Over 100 Percent) has been mentioned elsewhere, is that it was not uncommon for IPIs to list inaccurate or incomplete telephone numbers and e-mail addresses on their Web sites. It was even more common for telephone calls and e-mails to go unanswered. COMESA achieved an average score on availability and contactability (56 percent). Mauritius is yet again an example of best practice in this category. Investors in the two inquiry-handling assessments could easily identify the Board of Investment of Mauritius' officers whom they could contact by e-mail and phone in their search for information. chaPter 3: resPondInG to Investors' InFormatIon InQuIrIes 41 Unfortunately, COMESA showed weaker more information about the advantages of performance on all other components of the investing in each country and about various inquiry-handling assessment (Figure 17). services that IPIs could offer in the site-selection process. Figure 17: Inquiry-Handling Performance Across the Four Key Dimensions Good news: Out of 18 COMESA IPIs, the bottling company was able to find 15 Web sites. For the other 3 countries (Burundi, Eritrea, Comoros) there is no investment promotion agency in place yet. However, the investor soon realized that some of these Web sites were not providing the information he was looking for. Only 12 of the 15 posted e-mail addresses, and 13 included phone numbers. To the investor's surprise, when his company tried to make use of the contact details available on the Web sites and contacted the IPIs by e-mail, as it is the normal communication in What are the implications of these scores for business, it received no follow-up e-mail or COMESA? Very weak performance on inquiry phone call within 24 hours. International handling draws attention to the fact that a vast investors are used to internal business standards majority of COMESA IPIs might be missing out of customer service, which in many countries is a on potential investment leads. Let us take a 24-hour window of interim reply or closer look at the bottling company which had acknowledgement of receipt. attempted to start a business in 18 COMESA countries. The bottling company was able to reach 10 COMESA IPIs by phone. However, once the The bottling company started its site-selection investor was finally on the line with the IPI project process by doing online desk research on managers who could potentially facilitate his potential locations for its new juice plant in the business in the COMESA countries, he quickly COMESA region. Like over 80 percent of Web realized that most of the phone conversations users, the investor or his site location would not be as effective as he had envisaged. consultant used a search engine (Google, Only 5 COMESA IPIs were aware of the bottling Yahoo, etc.) for his search, using keywords such project inquiry sent by e-mail some days earlier. as "invest", the country name, a product, or an Only 4 out of these 5 project managers were industry. Like 92 percent of the companies in the able to discuss the project details and answer U.S., the investor sought to find the investment some of the project-related questions. Only promotion agency of the host country to seek 2 out of the 5 IPI project managers showed a answers to his questions. The company started professional understanding of the nature of the off by trying to locate the IPIs' Web sites to get business. 42 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Box 9: How Mauritius Managed to Stay Ahead of the Game MauritiusisanindisputableleaderintheCOMESAgroup.TheBoardofInvestmentofMauritius(BOI)Websiteandthe responsestoinvestors'inquiriessetitaheadofotherCOMESAmembers.TheBOIistheonlyIPIthatmadeittothegood performancetierwithanoverallscoreof67percent.ItisalsotheonlyCOMESAmemberthatperformedconsistentlywellin three assessments carried out as part of the GIPB 2009. This consistency and meticulousness of its performance is what makes MauritiusstandoutandsetsitclosetotheOECDperformancelevels. RajuJaddoo,theManagingDirectoroftheBOI,saysthatthekeytosuccessisadeepunderstandingofthebusiness requirementsofinvestorsandalisteningattitude.WhatmakestheBOIstandoutfromtherest?Jaddoosaysthatitisthe"quality and dedication of its staff, as well as its flat organization structure that focuses on putting much emphasis on empowerment of staff and productivity". MauritiusisanunquestionableleaderprimarilybecauseoftheBOI'sinquiry-handlingperformancewiththescoreof75percent for answer quality and 80 percent for making a strong business case to invest in Mauritius. What is the key to success? Jaddoo believesthatitliesinthecustomer-centricorganizationoftheBOI'sworkwhichfocusesonensuringthatcustomers'needsare metfromthestageofcontactinitiationtoprojectrealization.WiththisobjectiveinmindtheBOIhassetupanInvestment Management Information System (IMIS), which is subdivided into Contact Management System acting as a database for all contacts initiated with the potential investor, and other systems such as the Customer Relationship System, Leads Management System, Investor Tracking System and Aftercare System (see picture below). The IMIS is linked with a Human Resource OptimizationSystemindicatingthenumberofhoursusedinspecificprojects.Thissystemprovidesforensuringfollowupfrom the stage of identification of contacts until realization of projects. TheBOIisclearlyawareoftheneedto motivate and reward its staff for good performance and for securing investment leads. Its Performance Management System (PMS) tracks performance and the achievement of objectives set at the start of each year. In addition, it can track performance on tasks with clear deliverables and target dates assigned to each employee. The BOIlinksitsstaffbonussystem,which is determined by the Board of Directors and is holistic in its approach, to the PMS. TheBOI'sexampleprovesthat consistent work and good facilitation pay off. In April 2008 Rubric Quality Consultants, Ltd., a young and dynamic South African company specializing in the field of Software Testing and Quality Assurance serving theSouthernAfricanITmarket,sentaninquirytotheBOI'sgenericemailaddressonitsWebsite.Thequerywasdirectedtothe Advisory Centre which is composed of four dedicated officials who are part of the Advisory Team. By responding to the investor'sinquiryandprovidingrelevantandtimelyinformation,theBOInurturedtherelationshipwiththeinvestorwhich resulted in a fact-finding mission to Mauritius and meetings with stakeholders and potential business partners. As a consequence ofafruitfulcooperationbetweentheBOIandtheRubricQualityConsultants,Ltd.,thecompanywasincorporatedin Mauritius and started offering Software Testing and Quality Assurance services to ICT companies. The company is an authorized partner of HP for the Africa region and offers automated HP software testing solutions to software development companies. All employees of Rubric Quality Consultants are offered HP-certified software testing courses and ISEB software testing courses (certified by the British Computer Society). As of November 2009, the Rubric Quality Consultants, Ltd. has invested approximatelyUS$350,000andcurrentlyemploys15employees.Mauritiusalreadyhasitsblueprintforsuccess:strong management, devoted employees, rewarding incentives and functional internal systems. chaPter 3: resPondInG to Investors' InFormatIon InQuIrIes 43 During the phone conversation the investor a site visit. 4 COMESA IPIs offered in their reiterated his interest in locating his business in response to provide at some point additional the country and expressed his interest in information. Only 1 IPI offered to put the receiving information related to the project investor in touch with other investors or business inquiry sent by e-mail. However, out of 18 operators. None of the COMESA IPIs, however, potential candidate countries in COMESA only 5 tried to follow up on the potential bottling IPIs provided a response to this potential project in order to seek to influence the investor. That implies that a priori, 13 COMESA company's decision. countries would have fallen off the foreign investor's list of potential locations as he was This project inquiry handling example suggests unable to find basic country and industry that COMESA IPIs should make an important information to benchmark these locations at the effort to upgrade their facilitation capacity in desk research stage. In fact, only 1 COMESA order to capture FDI opportunities knocking on IPI made an effort to not only respond to all their doors by a) giving strategic importance to the questions in the project inquiry, but also to meeting investor information needs during the actively promote its country by highlighting the site-selection process, b) providing customer specific advantages for the investor. service at private sector standards, and c) Figure 18: Inquiry Handling Through the Eyes of an Investor IPIs seeking to capture investment leads use seeking to add marketing and sales value to inquiries to establish a relationship with the their facilitation work. COMESA IPIs should strive potential investor, which may lead eventually to to convert each project inquiry into a potential 44 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa meeting with interested companies, then a site But only 53 of them submitted a response within visit, and, eventually, to a serious investment the 10 working-day deadline set by our busy lead. investors. This means that a foreign company that initially considered all 181 countries for their Implications for Foreign Investors investment would have received data on only 29 Exploring Lesser-Known Destinations percent of locations at this stage. Worse, only 24 IPIs (13 percent) attempted to provide answers to Looking at GIPB results from the perspective of an all questions asked in both inquiries. And, with investor clearly reveals the lack of IPI capability to deliver an average global score of 27 percent for the good service quality of answers received, in most cases the As the GIPB beverage manufacturer and foreign company would lack the information they software engineering "companies" started their needed to make an investment decision. searches for an investment location, 165 of the 181 target IPIs could be researched online, that Further, only 14 IPIs made ongoing efforts to is, they had a Web site (Figure 18). However, actually promote their location by providing only 152 of the Web sites (84 percent of IPIs) reasons for the project to go forward. This provided an e-mail address at which the IPI means that only 8 percent of all IPIs made an could be contacted. When our companies sent effort to "sell" their location. them an e-mail, only nine IPIs (5 percent) replied within 24 hours, a typical deadline for busy In terms of customer care, only 10 IPIs executives. This is surprising in the highly consistently checked to ensure that responses competitive world of investment promotion. had been received, and only six asked for the investor's reaction and inquired about the In an effort to speak to someone about their progress of the project. What all of this means is project, our "companies" found telephone that only 3 percent of IPIs globally can be seen numbers for 150 of the 181 IPIs. They reached to provide consistently excellent service. IPIs immediately in only 39 percent of cases; after three days of repeated attempts, 102 of the 181 had been contacted for both inquiries. Our "investor" was considerably discouraged to find that, even when able to speak to someone at the IPI, only 32, or about a third, of those persons knew the sector well enough to discuss the project. More frequently, the person had not seen the investor's e-mail and, rather than taking advantage of the investor being on the phone to ask questions and provide information, they asked the investor to re-send the e-mail--usually to the same address that had produced no reply in the first place. Some conversations were productive and proactive--the IPIs usually seemed keen to assist. chaPter 3: resPondInG to Investors' InFormatIon InQuIrIes 45 QuIck wIns For eFFectIve Investor InQuIry handlInG The following tips will improve IPI interaction with foreign companies: · Expedite the investor's communication with the IPI. Post correct and complete contact information on the IPI Web site. Ensure that an investor can contact an appropriate project manager as the key liaison throughout a project. · Use business practices that demonstrate the IPI's professionalism. Train reception staff in proper ways to answer and direct telephone calls. Encourage them to announce the IPI's name and their own. Include electronic signatures on all e-mails. Provide branded, well-written, professional-looking materials. · Establish inquiry-handling protocols so that all inquiries are logged into a central system and ensure that a staff member is assigned to monitor the progress of inquiries and completed forms that are received via the Web site. Acknowledge receipt of all e-mails with investor inquiries and let investors know when the IPI will respond in full. Assign a staff person to check. · Have available materials on key features and advantages about the location, such as labor costs of key positions, employment regulations or costs for key sectors and subsectors, and names of existing investors, for quick response to investors. · Meet deadlines--or respond even sooner. If research for an investor takes longer than expected, inform the investor and propose another date. · Respond to investor inquiries in a way that is informative and promotes the location: · Organizeresponsesaccordingtothecompany'sspecificquestions.Provideresponsesin a single report or presentation with a table of contents. · Includegermane,accurate,andcomparativedata,visuals,casestudiesaboutcurrent investment in the location, and testimonials from well-known companies doing business there, to demonstrate the viability of the location. · Anticipateandanswerquestionsthatthecompanyhasnotyetasked.Thisdemonstrates the IPI's expertise and understanding of the company's needs. 46 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa · Develop a template for responses so that documents look professional, are branded, and follow a standard format including a table of contents, executive summary, and business case. · Includeasummary,atthebeginningortheendofthedocumentthatspecifieswhythe IPI's location is the best one for investment. Investors often use this summary in their own reports--so by providing it, the IPI saves the investor time and ensures that the right arguments about the location are made. · E-mailorcalltheinvestortoconfirmreceiptofthesentinformation. · Followupin1-2weekstoascertainwhatmoretheIPIcandotosupporttheprojectand offer to meet or arrange a site visit for the investor (budget permitting). These additional tips will improve the internal management skills of the IPI: · Set performance targets for staff based on the number and quality of investor inquiries serviced and converted into meetings or site visits. This gives staff a personal stake in the outcome of their efforts. · Have managers set quality standards and introduce systems for monitoring quality. These include staff performance targets, goals for project success, and systems for gathering feedback from companies, to ensure that the IPI responds to company needs. This provides for continuous learning and improvement throughout the IPI. · Train project managers to discuss a project and anticipate issues that may arise. Staff should know enough about the location to be able to suggest where projects could go, and what infrastructure, universities, and so forth will be available to the investor. Staff also needs customer relationship management skills so they can effectively build "trusted advisor" relationships with investors. · Work in close coordination with high levels of governments to assess their country's business climate and economy, and identify the sectors in which the IPI can realistically compete for investment. This assessment of their sector comparative attractiveness should be the foundation for the IPI's investment strategy, and thus for all research and promotion activities, including facilitation. · Be able to coordinate and supervise the work of subnational IPIs, if they exist. chaPter 3: resPondInG to Investors' InFormatIon InQuIrIes 47 chaPter 4: measurInG IPIs' Investment- attractIon actIvItIes Information provision is a cost-effective way for a country to address information failures and barriers to increased FDI Why Measure IPIs? consulting firm, potential investors are likely to look to the IPI for assistance in their site-selection IPIs' timely provision of information to potential process.4 The DCI study, based on the investors is important--especially so for aggregate responses of 281 executives with economies where information from other sources direct site-selection responsibilities in U.S. is scarce, where there is not a long track record companies with annual revenues of more of FDI, or where country or economy is viewed than $25 million, found that 65 percent of negatively. Unless positive information is readily companies have worked closely with IPIs during available, foreign companies may not consider past location decisions, and 64 percent of a location in the first place, or they may reject it executives indicate a strong likelihood that that prematurely. Addressing information failures is they would use an IPI Web site in their next likely to be the most cost-effective way for location search. Only 8 percent of companies an IPI to stimulate market interest and attract would not contact an IPI during the site selection investment. process. GIPB helps IPIs increase their relevance during companies' location decisions: by Virtually all countries now have a national assessing their information services. GIPB helps government-mandated IPI--a government to measure countries' competitiveness in the ministry, investment promotion agency, board complex world of investment promotion and of investment--that is responsible for promoting create a framework for improving performance. FDI and facilitating the investment process. According to a recent study by Development 4 Development Counsellors International (DCI). July 28, 2008. Counsellors International (DCI), a U.S.-based "A View from Corporate America: Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing." 48 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa IPIs vary substantially across regions. Differences Information Is Key to Site Selection in historic background, mandate and competencies, staffing, and oversight seem to Companies seeking to expand their production have an impact on ability to perform investment or service capacity abroad typically undertake promotion functions, and as GIPB 2009 a careful site-assessment process that requires evidences, in responding to investors' enormous amounts of information ranging information needs. However, all IPIs by definition from the more general at the initial stages of have the mandate to facilitate investment. their desk research, to the more specific at the Facilitation is the most basic activity in investment site visit stage (Figure 19). This process may be promotion. It underpins all other IPI activities performed in-house but often is outsourced to such as policy advocacy, proactive promotion, site-selection consultants. aftercare, etc. Unless professional facilitation is in place it may not be credible for an IPI to The desk research is called location "long engage in other investment promotion activities. listing" and usually involves collecting online information about a relatively large number of Most importantly, although IPI mandates, countries and locations (typically 8 to 20). Then, functions and structures may vary across the the company contacts the country's IPI to fill in world, the needs for site location information information gaps. by companies and their consultants does not vary. International investors expect at least basic Once they have collected this detailed international standards of service to be met. IPIs information, investors employ "benchmarking" failing to meet those standards will be most likely techniques to compare and evaluate the relative those that will lose out in the race to win advantages of investing in each location. In the investment projects. context of investment promotion, benchmarking Figure 19: The Site-Selection Process: From Desk to Field Research chaPter 4: measurInG IPIs' Investment- attractIon actIvItIes 49 is the use of investment-related criteria to Lang Lasalle, and DTZ, helped validate and compare and contrast potential investment improve the GIPB approach and the performance in competing locations. questionnaires used to evaluate IPI performance. If there is not enough information on a given What Does GIPB Tell Us about an IPI? location, the location will probably not make it to the next level of the selection process: In simulating the site selection, GIPB makes a comparative "short list." Thus, it is critical for countries to measure of the organizational effectiveness of each IPI, its ensure that relevant, up-to-date, and management efficiency, and its understanding of the FDI good-quality information is available to potential marketplace, along with its knowledge of its local economy, investors at the desk research stage if the new and its key selling points and weaknesses investment is to be secured. GIPB assesses an IPI's ability to provide information to prospective investors. However, GIPB's Approach and the Foreign the value of GIPB is enhanced by the fact that Company's Site-Selection Process information provision depends on many other activities being undertaken and competencies GIPB 2009 measures country and sector being mastered. Therefore, GIPB provides an information provision and foreign company indirect assessment of the overall effectiveness relationship management, particularly at the of an IPI to perform its core mission of attracting early information-gathering stages of the productive FDI. location-screening process. Its focus is on information provision at this "long-listing" stage For example, the IPI Web site assessment gives because if an IPI "loses" the investor at this an insight into: stage, its location usually will not be · The IPI's investment strategy. A strong Web reconsidered at later stages of the site-selection site is evidence that the IPI has an investment process. This makes these early interactions with strategy based on an understanding of the potential investors critical to capturing investment location's comparative or competitive projects. advantages, its core sectors for promotion and, via the selection of those sectors, GIPB mirrors the actions of a foreign company whether the probability of demand for as it assesses its investment-location options at investment in those sectors has been the long-listing stage: An international assessed. site-selection consultant uses the "mystery shopper" approach. In a carefully selected · How well an IPI has considered the simulated investment project, the survey first attributes of its location, which is the assesses the quality and usefulness of the "product" the IPI is selling. It is immediately information provided in the IPI's Web site. Then, obvious to a Web site user whether the IPI the consultant contacts the IPI to request details possesses a clear knowledge of its country. to further inform the location decision making, such as costs of land, availability and cost of · The IPI's perception of the market in which labor, overall operating costs, infrastructure, it operates. Its choice of target sectors quality of life, and legal framework. indicates whether or not the IPI has A focus group with leading site-selection researched the investment potential of given consultants, among them OCO Global, Jones sectors. 50 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa · Finally,aWebsiteclearlyshowswhether an through the use of case studies and IPI understands its customer: Best-practice testimonials but companies will also look for sites reveal that the IPI knows what will clues that the IPI itself has the connections motivate the foreign company to invest in the in the marketplace that will ensure that their location. project will succeed. Similarly, an IPI's ability to successfully service an investment inquiry reveals: Who is GIPB Designed for? · Whether the IPI has undertaken extensive research into target sectors. Effective IPIs · Governments. GIPB allows policymakers already have prepared materials that answer to assess the competitiveness of their questions frequently asked by investors, promotional effort in attracting investment. according to their sector of interest and the type of business activity they propose · Investment promotion practitioners. GIPB to undertake. The extent to which IPIs have allows IPIs to monitor their performance prepared these materials is revealed by how over time against their strategic objectives quickly they respond to information requests and against best-practice standards of and the quality of the information competitors. It highlights areas for they provide. improvement of an IPI's information services. · Whether the IPI has a robust investment strategy. An inability to provide detailed · Technical assistance providers. GIPB material about the sector that the IPI is constitutes the standard reference for best promoting suggests that the IPI has not practice in investor facilitation. developed a robust investment strategy. · The World Bank Group. GIPB allows for a · To what extent the IPI understands quick and effective diagnostic of IPIs' customer needs. As with the Web site capacity, and is a key tool to build a assessment, IPIs that cannot answer basic baseline to measure the impact of questions most likely have not researched investment promotion projects over time. their own market and sectors of interest. Conversely, an IPI that understands GIPB constitutes a number of reports: customers presents answers in a way that · The Global Investment Promotion responds to the investor's key location Benchmarking 2009 Summary Report. drivers and provides evidence that the An analysis of the global results, regional location meets or exceeds the investor's trends, and best-practice examples from requirements. top performers. · Whether the IPI has the capacity to · The Customized Report. Each participating facilitate or implement a project. Investors IPI receives a customized diagnostic of its want reassurance that they will be able to performance with useful insights and specific successfully implement a project in the recommendations for improvement. IPIs IPI's country. An experienced IPI will be can request additional individual reports by able to demonstrate that projects are viable sending an mail to fias@ifc.org chaPter 4: measurInG IPIs' Investment- attractIon actIvItIes 51 · "Getting Information" Sub-Indicator of and other information relevant to potential Investing Across Borders Project. GIPB investors. results will feed into a new set of indicators which measure the ease of starting and · BothscenariosrequiretheIPIstoperform operating a foreign-owned business in in a similar manner, since the initial project countries around the world. briefs were delivered via e-mail and then followed up by telephone interaction. Each Methodological Note IPI was provided with an outline of the simulated companies, information on GIPB 2009 investigated the investment promotion company strategy, and details of the capabilities of IPIs worldwide proposed investment project. This was A total of 213 IPIs were assessed; 181 national followed by a detailed outline of the IPIs (two of which are subnational IPIs from a information required, such as the country's most populous city and, in the absence background of the sector in the location, of a national IPI, are treated as national proxies) labor skills and availability, employment and 32 subnational IPIs. regulations, and potential sites. Each IPI was assessed in two ways: · ThemethodologyfavoredIPIswhich · First,IPIWebsiteswereevaluatedacross responded to the initial e-mail, without four dimensions to assess the extent to which prompting, within 48 hours. Where there they offer country and sector information, was no follow-up to the initial e-mail, and are a business-support gateway for GIPB's approach was to call the IPI at three prospective foreign company investors; different times on three different days to allow for any temporary staff shortages · Second,IPIcapacitytointeractwithand or system failures. This probably showed manage investment inquiries was evaluated. more determination than a regular potential Because service consistency offers important inward investor would have. The calls were insights into IPI capabilities, each IPI's conducted in English. inquiry-handling abilities were assessed twice using a "mystery shopper" See Appendix G for full scenarios. methodology. To ensure that we offered IPIs a balanced opportunity to demonstrate their Dealing with languages other than English capabilities, the first assessment related to a GIPB assessment of Web sites and beverage project with a research and inquiry-handling abilities was conducted in Eng- development component, and the second lish. Many IPIs may have good reasons for not was a software development center inquiry. hosting an English-language version of their Web site. Some countries and regions may · Thesescenariosarebasedonrealproject have taken an informed management decision inquiries, one by a leading soft drink not to provide English versions because they manufacturer and the other by a leading realize that for historical, cultural, or Internet and software development developmental reasons, they are unlikely to company. They represent two different attract investors from English-speaking countries. sectors and types of activity that require different combinations of labor, property, 52 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Some IPIs might be able to attract English- · In2006,thetop-fiveIPIwereusedasthe speaking investors but their financial resources benchmark. In GIPB 2009, because of the preclude creating an English version of their extended global sample, this group has Web site. been removed. English is a dominant international business Where quoted in this report the 2006 scores language and much FDI is currently from have been standardized by applying the GIPB English-speaking nations. At the very least, 2009 weightings at both the theme and contact information should be prominently subtheme levels, and removing any indexing located on the home page so that any company, that had been used in 2006. In addition, regardless of language, can locate a telephone regional averages have been updated to use the number or e-mail address. 2009 regional classifications, and by removing subnational IPIs from those calculations. Because some aspects of the Web site review are not language sensitive, sites were scored in those areas, regardless of the language of the Web site. Areas in which non-English-language Web sites were evaluated are the following: · WeboptimizationandInternetaccessibility · Websitearchitecture · Websitelookandfeel · Contactinformation In the case of the inquiry-handling assessment, non-English speaking IPIs that did not submit a response scored zero for that particular assessment. Methodological variations on 2006 survey · Thesamplesizeincreasedfrom125IPIsin 2006 (96 nationals and 29 subnationals) to 213 in 2008 (181 nationals and 32 subnationals). Not all of those surveyed in 2006 were included in the GIPB 2009 report. · Regionalaveragesinthe2009reportare calculated only on the basis of the national IPIs. Subnational IPIs were not included in regional averages. chaPter 4: measurInG IPIs' Investment- attractIon actIvItIes 53 aPPendIces Appendix A. GIPB 2009 COMESA Results IPI Name Performance Board of Investment of Mauritius GOOD Economic Development Board of Madagascar Kenya Investment Authority Malawi Investment Promotion Agency AVERAGE Seychelles Investment Bureau Uganda Investment Authority Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements, Djibouti Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements, Congo, Dem. Rep. Ethiopian Investment Agency General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, Egypt Ministry of Investment, Sudan WEAK Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority Zimbabwe Investment Authority Commission Nationale des Investissements, Burundi Eritrea Investment Center Investment Promotion Bureau, Comoros VERY WEAK Zambia Development Agency COMESA average WEAK 81-100% BEST PRACTICE 61-80% GOOD 41-60% AVERAGE 21-40% WEAK 0-20% VERY WEAK 54 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Appendix B. GIPB 2009 Global Results IPI Name Performance East Asia and the Pacific Brunei Economic Development Board Fiji Islands Trade & Investment Bureau Invest Hong Kong, China Malaysian Industrial Development Authority GOOD Singapore Economic Development Board Xiamen Investment Promotion Agency, China Anhui Provincial Foreign Investment Promotion Bureau, China Council for the Development of Cambodia Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade Agency, Mongolia Henan Foreign Investment Administration, China AVERAGE Philippine Board of Investments Thailand Board of Investment Vanuatu Investment Promotion Authority Central Java Investment Board, Indonesia Department of Commerce, Trade and Industries - Foreign Investment Division, Solomon Islands Department of Economic Affairs, Micronesia Department of Investment Services, Taiwan, Province of China Heilongjiang Investment Promotion Bureau, China Hubei Provincial Department of Commerce, China Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board WEAK Invest in China Invest in Palau Investment and Trade Promotion Bureau of Gansu Province, China Investment Outreach Office, Indonesia, Aceh Investment Promotion Authority, Papua New Guinea Jiangxi Provincial Investment Promotion Center, China Laos Department of Domestic and Foreign Investment appendices 55 Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Labour - Industry Development and Investment Promotion Division, Samoa Ministry of Labour, Commerce and Industry, Tonga Ministry of Planning and Investment - Foreign Investment Agency, Viet Nam WEAK Ministry of Resources and Development, Marshall Islands Ningxia Investment Promotion Bureau, China Philippine Economic Zone Authority Foreign Investment Commission, Kiribati Hunan Provincial Department of Commerce, China VERY WEAK Shanxi Provincial Department of Commerce, China TradeInvest Timor-Leste Europe and Central Asia Armenian Development Agency Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency Invest in Turkey Invest Macedonia Investment and Development Agency of Latvia Lithuanian Development Agency GOOD Moldovan Investment and Export Promotion Organization Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency Romanian Agency for Foreign Investment Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, Croatia AlbInvest, Albania Azerbaijani Export & Investment Promotion Foundation Enterprise Estonia Foreign Investment Promotion Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina AVERAGE Georgian National Investment Agency Invest Bulgaria Agency 56 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Invest in Tomsk, Russia Investment Promotion Agency of Rostov Region, Russia Montenegrin Investment Promotion Agency AVERAGE Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments UZINFOINVEST, Uzbekistan Invest Ukraine Kazakhstan Investment Promotion Center WEAK State Committee on Investment and State Property Management of the Republic of Tajikistan Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, Kyrgyz Republic Ministry of Economic Development and Trade/Department of Investment Policy, Russia VERY WEAK Ministry of Economy, Belarus Latin America and the Caribbean Agência Brasileira de Promoção de Exportações e Investimentos Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de Desarrollo, Costa Rica Corporación de Promoción de Exportaciones e Inversiones del Ecuador FIDE, Inversión y Exportaciones, Honduras Invest in Bogotá GOOD Jamaica Trade and Invest Proexport, Colombia ProNicaragua Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company Agencia Nacional de Desarrollo de Inversiones, Argentina Belize Trade and Investment Development Service Comisión Nacional de Promoción de Inversiones, El Salvador Consejo Nacional de Promoción de Inversiones, Venezuela AVERAGE Foreign Investment Committee, Chile Grenada Industrial Development Corporation appendices 57 Guyana Office for Investment Invest Dominica Invest in Guatemala Invest Trinidad & Tobago - Investment Promotion Department National Investment Promotions Incorporated, St. Vincent and the Grenadines AVERAGE ProInversión, Peru ProMexico Red de Inversiones y Exportaciones, Paraguay St. Lucia National Development Corporation Uruguay XXI Investment and Export Promotion Institute Agencia de Cooperación e Inversión de Medellín y el Área Metropolitana, Colombia Antigua and Barbuda Investment Authority WEAK Bahamas Investment Authority St. Kitts Investment Promotion Agency Centre de Facilitation des Investissements en Haiti Centro de Exportación e Inversión de la República Dominicana Centro de Promoción Bolivia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Suriname VERY WEAK Ministerio de Comercio e Industria - Dirección Nacional de Promoción de la Inversión, Panama Probarranquilla, Colombia Middle East and North Africa Invest in Israel GOOD Bahrain Economic Development Board Foreign Investment Promotion Agency, Tunisia Investment Development Authority of Lebanon AVERAGE Jordan Investment Board Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority 58 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Agence Nationale de Développement des Investissements, Algeria Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements, Djibouti Dubai Development and Investment Authority General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, Egypt Invest in Iraq WEAK Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau Omani Centre for Investment Promotion and Export Development Organization for Investment Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran Palestinean Investment Promotion Agency Qatar Investment Promotion Department General Investment Authority, Yemen Investir au Maroc VERY WEAK Syrian Investment Agency OECD High-Income Austrian Business Agency Copenhagen Capacity, Denmark Invest in Canada Invest in France Agency Invest in Germany BEST PRACTICE Invest in Sweden Manchester Investment and Development Agency Service, United Kingdom Scottish Development International, United Kingdom UK Trade & Investment, United Kingdom Agência para o Investimento e Comércio Externo de Portugal Austrade, Australia Berlin Partner, Germany GOOD Board of Economic Development, Invest in Luxemburg Czech Invest appendices 59 Hungarian Investment and Trade Development Agency Industrial Development Agency of Ireland INTERES Invest in Spain International Business Wales, United Kingdom Invest in America Invest in Bavaria, Germany Invest in Brussels Invest in Denmark Invest in Finland GOOD Invest in Iceland Agency Invest Korea Invest Queensland, Australia Investment New Zealand OSEC Business Network Switzerland Osloteknopol Stockholm Business Region, Sweden Think London, United Kingdom Invest in Greece Agency Invest in Italy Japan External Trade Organization AVERAGE Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency South Asia Board of Investment of Sri Lanka GOOD Afghanistan Investment Support Agency AVERAGE Board of Investment, Bangladesh Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority WEAK Department of Industries - Foreign Investment Division, Nepal 60 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Foreign Investment Services Bureau, Maldives WEAK Pakistan Board of Investment Bihar State Investment Promotion Board, India Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India VERY WEAK Ministry of Trade and Industry, Bhutan Sub-Saharan Africa Board of Investment of Mauritius GOOD Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority Economic Development Board of Madagascar Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Investment Promotion and Major Works Agency, Senegal Kenya Investment Authority Lesotho National Development Corporation AVERAGE Malawi Investment Promotion Agency Seychelles Investment Bureau Tanzania Investment Centre Trade and Investment South Africa Uganda Investment Authority Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements, Congo, Dem. Rep. Agência Nacional para o Investimento Privado, Angola Centro de Promoção de Investimentos, Mozambique Ethiopian Investment Agency Gambia Investment Promotion and Free Zones Agency WEAK Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Promotion of Small and Medium Companies, Equatorial Guinea Ministry of Investment, Sudan Namibia Investment Centre, Ministry of Trade and Industry National Investment Commission, Liberia appendices 61 Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission Office de Promotion des Investissements Prives, Guinea Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority WEAK Togo Free Zone Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority Zimbabwe Investment Authority Agence de la Promotion de l'investissement au Mali Agence de Promotion des Investissements Privés, Gabon Cabo Verde Investimentos Cellule de Gestion du Code des Investissements, Cameroon Centre de Promotion des Investissements en Côte d'Ivoire Centre de Promotion des Investissements, Benin Centre de Promotion des Investissements, Niger Commission Nationale des Investissements, Burundi Eritrea Investment Center Investment Promotion Bureau, Comoros VERY WEAK Ministere de l'Economie, des Finances et du Budget/Commission Nationale des Investissements, Congo, Rep. of Ministère des Affaires Economiques et du Développement, Mauritania Ministère du Commerce, de la Promotion de l'Entreprise et de l'Artisanat, Burkina Faso Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Cooperação e Comunidades, São Tomé and Principe Ministry of Economy and Finance - Private Investment Promotion Office, Guinea-Bissau Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Promotion of Small and Medium Sized Business and Industries, Central African Republic Office de Promotion Industrielle du Tchad Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency Zambia Development Agency 62 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Appendix C. Acronyms ABA Austrian Business Agency APEX Agência Brasileira de Promoção de Exportações e Investimentos BSO Business Service Outsourcing COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa CORPEI Corporación de Promoción de Exportaciones e Inversiones del Ecuador EAP East Asia and the Pacific ECA Europe and Central Asia DCI Development Counsellors International FDI Foreign Direct Investment GIPB Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking GIS Geographic Information Systems IC AS The Multi-Donor Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group IDA International Development Association IFC International Finance Corporation IPI Investment Promotion Intermediary ISA Invest in Sweden Agency IT Information Technology LAC Latin America and the Caribbean MENA Middle East and North Africa MIGA Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development SA South Asia SSA Sub-Saharan Africa UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development appendices 63 Appendix D. List of Participating National IPIs, by Region East Asia and the Pacific Country IPI Web site Brunei Darussalam The Brunei Economic Development Board www.bedb.com.bn Cambodia Council for the Development of Cambodia www.cambodiainvestment.gov.kh China Invest in China www.fdi.gov.cn Fiji Fiji Islands Trade & Investment Bureau www.ftib.org.fj Indonesia Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board www.bkpm.go.id Kiribati Foreign Investment Commission No Web site Lao PDR Laos Department of Domestic and Foreign Investment www.invest.laopdr.org Malaysia Malaysian Industrial Development Authority www.mida.gov.my Marshall Islands Ministry of Resources and Development www.rmirnd.net Micronesia, Federated States of Department of Economic Affairs www.fsminvest.fm Mongolia Foreign Investment and Foreign Trade Agency www.investmongolia.com Palau Invest in Palau www.palau-investment.com Papua New Guinea Investment Promotion Authority www.ipi.gov.pg Philippines Philippine Board of Investments www.boi.gov.ph Samoa Ministry of Commerce, Industry & Labour - Industry www.mcil.gov.ws/idipd_invest.html Development and Investment Promotion Division Singapore Singapore Economic Development Board www.edb.gov.sg Solomon Islands Department of Commerce, Trade and Industries - Foreign www.investsolomons.com Investment Division Taiwan, China Department of Investment Services www.dois.moea.gov.tw Thailand Thailand Board of Investment www.boi.go.th Timor-Leste TradeInvest Timor-Leste www.turismotimorleste.com/en/ institutional/tradeinvest/ Tonga Ministry of Labour, Commerce and Industry www.mlci.gov.to Vanuatu Vanuatu Investment Promotion Authority www.investinvanuatu.com Viet Nam Ministry of Planning and Investment - Foreign Investment www.fia.mpi.gov.vn Agency 64 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Europe and Central Asia Country IPI Web site Albania AlbInvest www.albinvest.gov.al Armenia Armenian Development Agency www.ada.am Azerbaijan Azerbaijani Export & Investment Promotion Foundation www.azpromo.org Belarus Ministry of Economy www.economy.gov.by Bosnia and Herzegovina Foreign Investment Promotion Agency of Bosnia and www.fipi.gov.ba Herzegovina Bulgaria Invest Bulgaria Agency www.investbg.government.bg Croatia Trade and Investment Promotion Agency www.apiu.hr Cyprus Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency www.cipi.org.cy Estonia Enterprise Estonia www.investinestonia.com Georgia Georgian National Investment Agency www.investingeorgia.org Kazakhstan Kazakhstan Investment Promotion Center www.kazinvest.kz Kyrgyz Republic Ministry of Economic Development and Trade www.mvtp.kg Latvia Investment and Development Agency of Latvia www.liaa.gov.lv Lithuania Lithuanian Development Agency www.lda.lt Macedonia, FYR Invest Macedonia www.investinmacedonia.com Moldova Moldovan Investment and Export Promotion Organization www.miepo.md Montenegro Montenegrin Investment Promotion Agency www.mipi.cg.yu Poland Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency www.paiz.gov.pl Romania Romanian Agency for Foreign Investment www.arisinvest.ro Russian Federation Ministry of Economic Development and Trade/Department www.economy.gov.ru of Investment Policy Serbia Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency www.siepa.sr.gov.yu Slovenia Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for www.investslovenia.org Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments Tajikistan State Committee on Investment and State Property www.amcu.gki.tj Management of the Republic of Tajikistan Turkey Invest in Turkey www.invest.gov.tr Ukraine Invest Ukraine www.investukraine.org Uzbekistan Uzinfoinvest www.uzinfoinvest.uz appendices 65 Latin America and the Caribbean Country IPI Web site Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda Investment Authority www.investantiguabarbuda.org Argentina Agencia Nacional de Desarrollo de Inversiones www.prosperar.gov.ar Bahamas, The Bahamas Investment Authority www.bahamas.gov.bs Belize Belize Trade and Investment Development Service www.belizeinvest.org.bz Bolivia Centro de Promoción Bolivia www.ceprobol.gov.bo Brazil Agência Brasileira de Promoção de Exportações e www.apexbrasil.com.br Investimentos Chile Foreign Investment Committee www.cinver.cl Colombia Proexport www.proexport.com.co Costa Rica Coalición Costarricense de Iniciativas de Desarrollo www.cinde.org Dominica Invest Dominica www.investdominica.dm Dominican Republic Centro de Exportación e Inversión de la República www.cedopex.gov.do Dominicana Ecuador Corporación de Promoción de Exportaciones e Inversiones www.corpei.org del Ecuador El Salvador Comisión Nacional de Promoción de Inversiones www.proesa.com.sv Grenada Grenada Industrial Development Corporation www.grenadaworld.com Guatemala Invest in Guatemala www.investinguatemala.org Guyana Guyana Office for Investment www.goinvest.gov.gy Haiti Centre de Facilitation des Investissements en Haiti www.cfihaiti.net Honduras FIDE, Inversión y Exportaciones www.hondurasinfo.hn Jamaica Jamaica Trade and Invest www.jamaicatradeandinvest.org Mexico ProMexico www.investinmexico.com.mx Nicaragua ProNicaragua www.pronicaragua.org Panama Ministerio de Comercio e Industria - Dirección Nacional de www.mici.gob.pa Promoción de la Inversión Paraguay Red de Inversiones y Exportaciones www.rediex.gov.py Peru ProInversión www.proinversion.gob.pe Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company www.pridco.org/portal/ St. Kitts and Nevis St. Kitts Investment Promotion Agency No Web site St. Lucia St. Lucia National Development Corporation www.stluciandc.com St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Investment Promotions Incorporated www.svg-nipi.com Suriname Chamber of Commerce and Industry www1.sr.net/~t100779/ 66 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Trinidad and Tobago Invest Trinidad & Tobago - Investment Promotion www.investtnt.com Department Uruguay Uruguay XXI Investment and Export Promotion Institute www.uruguayxxi.gub.uy Venezuela, R. B. de Consejo Nacional de Promoción de Inversiones www.conapri.org Middle East and North Africa Country IPI Web site Algeria Agence Nationale de Développement des Investissements www.andi.dz Bahrain Bahrain Economic Development Board www.bahrainedb.com Djibouti Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements www.djiboutinvest.dj Egypt General Authority for Investment and Free Zones www.gafinet.org Iran, Islamic Republic of Organization for Investment Economic and Technical www.investiniran.ir Assistance of Iran Iraq Invest in Iraq www.investpromo.gov.iq Israel Invest in Israel www.investinisrael.gov.il Jordan Jordan Investment Board www.jordaninvestment.com Kuwait Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau www.kuwaitfib.com Lebanon Investment Development Authority of Lebanon www.idal.com.lb Morocco Investir au Maroc www.invest.gov.ma Oman Omani Centre for Investment Promotion and Export www.ociped.com Development Qatar Qatar Investment Promotion Department www.investinqatar.com.qa Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority www.sagia.gov.sa Syrian Arab Republic Syrian Investment Agency www.investinsyria.org Tunisia Foreign Investment Promotion Agency www.investintunisia.tn United Arab Emirates Dubai Development and Investment Authority www.emiratesfreezone.com West Bank and Gaza Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency www.pipi.gov.ps Yemen, Republic of General Investment Authority www.giay.gov.ye OECD High-Income Country IPI Web site Australia Austrade www.austrade.gov.au Austria Austrian Business Agency www.aba.gv.at Belgium, Brussels* Invest in Brussels www.investinbrussels.com Canada Invest in Canada www.investincanada.gc.ca Czech Republic Czech Invest www.czechinvest.org NB: * denotes subnational IPI evaluated in absence of a national IPI appendices 67 Denmark Invest in Denmark www.investindk.com Finland Invest in Finland www.investinfinland.fi France Invest in France Agency www.invest-in-france.org Germany Invest in Germany www.invest-in-germany.de Greece Invest in Greece Agency www.elke.gr Hungary Hungarian Investment and Trade Development Agency www.itdh.hu Iceland Invest in Iceland Agency www.invest.is Ireland Industrial Development Agency of Ireland www.idaireland.com Italy Invest in Italy www.investinitaly.com Japan Japan External Trade Organization www.investjapan.org Korea, Rep. of Invest Korea www.investkorea.org Luxembourg Board of Economic Development, Invest in Luxemburg www.bed.public.lu Netherlands Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency www.nfia.nl New Zealand Investment New Zealand www.investmentnz.govt.nz Norway, Oslo* Osloteknopol www.osloteknopol.com Portugal Agência para o Investimento e Comércio Externo de www.investinportugal.pt Portugal Slovak Republic Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency www.sario.sk Spain Invest in Spain www.investinspain.org Sweden Invest in Sweden www.isa.se Switzerland OSEC Business Network Switzerland www.osec.ch United Kingdom UK Trade & Investment www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk United States Invest in America www.trade.gov/investamerica/ NB: *denotes subnational IPI evaluated in absence of a national IPI South Asia Country IPI Web site Afghanistan Afghanistan Investment Support Agency www.aisa.org.af Bangladesh Board of Investment www.boi.gov.bd Bhutan Ministry of Trade and Industry www.mti.gov.bt India Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of www.dipp.nic.in Commerce and Industry Maldives Foreign Investment Services Bureau www.investmaldives.org Nepal Department of Industries - Foreign Investment Division www.ip.np.wipo.net/foreign.htm Pakistan Pakistan Board of Investment www.pakboi.gov.pk Sri Lanka Board of Investment of Sri Lanka www.boi.lk 68 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Sub-Saharan Africa Country IPI Web site Angola Agência Nacional para o Investimento Privado http://investinangola.com Benin Centre de Promotion des Investissements www.cpi-benin.com Botswana Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority www.bedia.co.bw Burkina Faso Ministère du Commerce, de la Promotion de l'Entreprise et www.commerce.gov.bf de l'Artisanat Burundi Commission Nationale des Investissements No Web site Cameroon Cellule de Gestion du Code des Investissements No Web site Cape Verde Cabo Verde Investimentos www.cvinvest.cv Central African Republic Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Promotion of Small No Web site and Medium Sized Business and Industries Chad Office de Promotion Industrielle du Tchad No Web site Comoros Investment Promotion Bureau No Web site Congo, Dem. Rep. Agence Nationale pour la Promotion des Investissements www.anapi.org Congo, Rep. of Ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et du www.mefb-cg.org Budget/Commission Nationale des Investissements Côte d'Ivoire Centre de Promotion des Investissements en Côte d'Ivoire www.cepici.ci Equatorial Guinea Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Promotion of Small www.ceiba-guinea-ecuatorial.org and Medium Companies Eritrea Eritrea Investment Center No Web site Ethiopia Ethiopian Investment Agency www.ethiomarket.com/eic/ Gabon Agence de Promotion des Investissements Privés www.invest-gabon.com Gambia, The Gambia Investment Promotion and Free Zones Agency www.gipfza.gm Ghana Ghana Investment Promotion Centre www.gipc.org.gh Guinea Office de Promotion des Investissements Privés www.mirinet.com/opip/ Guinea-Bissau Ministry of Economy and Finance - Private Investment No Web site Promotion Office Kenya Kenya Investment Authority www.investmentkenya.com Lesotho Lesotho National Development Corporation www.lndc.org.ls Liberia National Investment Commission www.nic.gov.lr Madagascar Economic Development Board of Madagascar www.edbm.gov.mg Malawi Malawi Investment Promotion Agency www.malawi-invest.net/inves_opp_ agri.html Mali Agence de la Promotion de l'investissement au Mali No Web site Mauritania Ministère des Affaires Economiques et du Développement www.maed.gov.mr Mauritius Board of Investment of Mauritius www.investmauritius.com Mozambique Centro de Promoção de Investimentos www.cpi.co.mz appendices 69 Namibia Namibia Investment Centre, Ministry of Trade and Industry www.mti.gov.na Niger Centre de Promotion des Investissements www.investir-au-niger.org Nigeria Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission www.nipc.gov.ng Rwanda Rwanda Investment and Export Promotion Agency www.rwandainvest.com São Tomé and Principe Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Cooperação e www.mnecc.gov.st Comunidades Senegal Investment Promotion and Major Works Agency www.investinsenegal.com Seychelles Seychelles Investment Bureau www.sib.gov.sc Sierra Leone Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency No Web site South Africa Trade and Investment South Africa www.thedti.gov.za Sudan Ministry of Investment www.sudaninvest.org Swaziland Swaziland Investment Promotion Authority www.sipi.org.sz Tanzania Tanzania Investment Centre www.tic.co.tz Togo Togo Free Zone www.zonefranchetogo.tg Uganda Uganda Investment Authority www.ugandainvest.com Zambia Zambia Development Agency www.zda.org.zm Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Investment Authority www.zia.co.zw 70 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Appendix E. List of Participating Subnational IPIs, by Region East Asia and the Pacific Country IPI Web site China, Anhui Anhui Provincial Foreign Investment Promotion Bureau www.ahinvest.gov.cn China, Gansu The Investment and Trade Promotion Bureau of Gansu www.gsinvest.gov.cn Province China, Heilongjiang Heilongjiang Investment Promotion Bureau www.hljzsj.com China, Henan Henan Foreign Investment Administration www.hncom.gov.cn China, Hubei Hubei Provincial Department of Commerce www.hbdofcom.gov.cn China, Hunan Hunan Provincial Department of Commerce www.hninvest.gov.cn China, Jiangxi Jiangxi Provincial Investment Promotion Center www.investjx.com.cn China, Ningxia Ningxia Investment Promotion Bureau www.nxinvest.gov.cn China, Shanghai Shanghai Foreign Investment Development Board www.fid.org.cn China, Shanxi Shanxi Provincial Department of Commerce www.docsx.gov.cn China, Xiamen Xiamen Investment Promotion Agency www.xipi.com.cn Hong Kong (China) Invest HongKong www.investhk.gov.hk Indonesia, Central Java Central Java Investment Board www.central-java.com Indonesia Investment Outreach Office www.investinaceh.org Philippines Philippine Economic Zone Authority www.peza.gov.ph Europe and Central Asia Country IPI Web site Russian Federation, Investment Promotion Agency of Rostov Region www.ipi-don.ru Rostov-on-Don Russian Federation, Tomsk Invest in Tomsk www.investintomsk.com Latin America and the Caribbean Country IPI Web site Colombia, Barranquilla Probarranquilla www.probarranquilla.org Colombia, Bogotá Invest in Bogotá www.investinbogota.com Colombia, Medellín Agencia de Cooperación e Inversión de Medellín y el Área www.acimedellin.org Metropolitana appendices 71 OECD High-Income Country IPI Web site Australia, Queensland Invest Queensland www.investqueensland.com.au Denmark, Copenhagen Copenhagen Capacity www.copcap.com Germany, Bavaria Invest in Bavaria www.invest-in-bavaria.com Germany, Berlin Berlin Partner www.berlin-partner.de Sweden, Stockholm Stockholm Business Region www.stockholmbusinessregion.se United Kingdom, London Think London www.thinklondon.com United Kingdom, Manchester Manchester Investment and Development Agency Service www.investinmanchester.com United Kingdom, Scotland Scottish Development International www.sdi.co.uk United Kingdom, Wales International Business Wales www.ibwales.com South Asia Country IPI Web site Bangladesh Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority www.epzbangladesh.org.bd India, Bihar Bihar State Investment Promotion Board No Web site Sub-Saharan Africa Country IPI Web site Tanzania, Zanzibar Zanzibar Investment Promotion Authority www.zanzibarinvest.org 72 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Appendix F. Description and Overall Weightings of Themes and Subthemes Web site Assessment Themes and Subthemes 1 Information Architecture (10%) - the layout and organization of information in a Web site and the extent to which the site was designed using a consistent and logical structure that allows users to quickly identify key pieces of information. 1a Web Friendly Structure (10%) - home page setup and appearance on standard PC screens and whether extensive scrolling is required to see information. 1b Navigation Ease (70%) - whether the site uses navigation bars or prompts and whether it is easy to move from page to page. 1c Web site Functionality (20%) - whether the site signposted key topics, is downloadable in a standard time, and whether its graphics and links worked. 2 Design (10%) - the general appearance and readability of a site. 2a Look and Feel (10%) - industry terminology for the visual appeal and visual consistency of pages. 2b Use of Graphics (30%) - whether the site uses graphics that enhance the IPI's image for business, and the use of maps to showcase key infrastructure in the location 2c Reading Ease (60%) - whether the choice of color or text support readability, whether font sizes are consistent, headings short and "web friendly." 3 Content (50%) - the extent to which the site contains content that is relevant, accurate, current, and easily accessible to potential investors. 3a Clarity of Purpose (15%) - whether the Web site sets out its location as a destination for foreign investment as well as the IPI's services for investors on the home page. 3b Core Information Provision (20%) - provision of key information for foreign businesses that is both relevant and useful. 3c Sector Information Provision (35%) - provision of sector information online and whether this information is consistent in terms of its depth and quality across multiple target sectors. 3d Credibility of Information (10%) - use of statistics to support claims and whether these statistics are well sourced, dated, and from credible origins. 3e Currency of Information (10%) - use of up-to-date information on business events and investor-related news. 3f Downloads (5%) - ability to download investor reports or presentations from the site and the comprehensiveness of this information for inward investors. appendices 73 3g International Accessibility (5%) - use of English and other frequently used (relevant) business language options that are accurate and consistent in terms of the level of information provided in each language option. 4 Promotional Effectiveness (30%) - refers to the extent to which the Web site is effective in its primary aim of selling the location and IPI services to inward investors. 4a Web Prominence (15%) - whether the Web site was easy to identify from an Internet search. 4b Corporate Roles and Support (15%) - whether the Web site clearly sets out the role of the organization and the services provided including clear methods for accessing further information and advice. 4c Contact Information (25%) - whether the Web site clearly sets out a good range of detailed contact options for site visitors. 4d Promotional Effectiveness (45%) - the effectiveness of the Web site at selling the location to business, and use of comparative data. Inquiry-Handling Themes and Subthemes 1 Availability & Contactability (10%) - defined as the extent to which an investor can identify the IPI and officers within the IPI that they can contact in their search for information and also whether the IPI was easy to contact from a client perspective. 1a Web Availability and Contactability (30%) - whether the IPI had a Web site and the ease of finding that Web site. 1b Quality of Contact Details (70%) - the level of contact details available to a potential inward investor from the Web site including whether they were clearly set out, easy to identify, and accurate. 2 Responsiveness and Handling (15%) - defined as the ease with which an investor can communicate with an IPI and the IPI's ability to engage with the investor in a professional and informed manner. 2a E-mail and Phone Responsiveness (40%) - whether the IPI had good internal systems at first contact level for dealing with investor inquiries from the Web site and whether it was effective at handling clients who contacted the organization directly. 2b E-mail Handling (10%) - the way in which the IPI responded to initial e-mail inquiries to the Web site and whether e-mail correspondence was well linked to the original client project inquiry and projected a clear and professional image of the IPI for the client. 2c Call Handling (10%) - whether the IPI demonstrated that their first-level communication channels and project officers were competent and thorough at taking client inquiries. 2d Inquiry-handling Competence and Responsiveness (40%) - whether the IPI showed that their project officers were aware of the original client e-mail inquiry and were willing and able to provide a timely inquiry response. Also, whether they provided good coordinated management of the inquiry and completed work to deadline. 74 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa 3 Response (55%) - refers to the actual response that the IPI provided to the investment inquiry. 3a Response Format (5%) - whether the IPI provided a final response that was presented in a clear manner, preferably as one document in an appropriate business software package. 3b Response Branding (5%) - whether the response was well branded, ensured good consistency, and projected a strong image to the client. 3c Response Organization (5%) - whether the response included a cover letter as well as a contents page, introduction, and other relevant headings relating to the project and whether the IPI addressed each of the client's issues that were raised. 3d Answer Quality (55%) - whether the IPI addressed each client issue in turn and customized their response to the client's particular needs, thereby providing information that has real value in the long-listing process. 3e Answer Credibility (10%) - whether the response made good use of comparative data, relevant and well-referenced case studies, and testimonials. Also whether the IPI response was accurate in terms of grammar and spelling. 3f Business Case (20%) - whether the IPI set out why their location was good for the client project. 4 Customer Care (20%) - the actions that an IPI takes following delivery of a client request. 4a Follow Up (100%) - the extent to which the IPI took action to follow up on the information sent to the client as well as to establish whether they could offer more help or arrange to move the project on. appendices 75 Appendix G. Description of Inquiry-Handling Scenarios Each IPI was presented with a project request, with the layout and organization for the request varying between the projects. The request provided core project information, relating to the company's objectives and detailing the size and scale of the requirement. A good IPI would be able to pick up on this information and ask questions about key aspects; best-practice IPIs anticipate issues that may arise in later stages of the investment project decision making or implementation and discuss these with investors. Information in all cases was requested for 12 days after the initial e-mail was sent and 10 days after the telephone call. Inquiry 1: International beverage firm ­ new pilot plant & development centre Project A multinational soft drinks and consumer products company is seeking a new manufacturing plant, with some basic research and development capability. Within this new plant, the client wants to investigate new flavors and look at local beverages, flavors and produce with a view to assessing the potential for international marketing or regional development. Company Background The client is a growing international soft drinks brand. They currently have operations in 40 locations with 7 manufacturing plants in their established markets. They had a global turnover in 2006/07 in the order of $8 billion. Project Details The client aims to have the pilot plant fully operational by the third quarter 2009. The plant itself will be around 50,000 sq ft/5,000 sq meters with an additional 20,000-30,000 sq ft/2,000 sq m of office and lab space. The sizes stipulated are only indicative at this stage- as the project details become more defined and plans are finalized, the scale of the plant may change. Depending on the short-listed locations, and the options available to the client they may elect to configure the plant differently, locate the plant at an existing facility with the local activity to be contained to some R&D as well as a marketing office. Although this is not the preferred option, the client may look at splitting the plant and the R&D functions, depending on what is most practical in their short-listed location. Initial staff estimates are at approximately 75 staff by Q4 2009, but we expect that staff numbers may double over following three years, depending on success and the availability and cost of labor. Local staff requirements will be as follows: 1 HR manager. 1 financial controller (5 years Financial Director experience with an international firm or food and beverage experience). 10 experienced R&D technicians (experienced in new product development, food testing, quality control). 76 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa 15 graduate technicians (graduates with food science, chemistry qualifications). Some language capability. 1 computer technician (university qualified graduate or qualified with around 3 years work experience). 1 mechanical engineer (university qualified with food production experience). 1 electrical engineer (university qualified with industrial plant/ production line experience). 1 health & safety manager (5+ years experience having held similar health and safety roles). 20 general plant staff (secondary school graduates with factory experience, preferably in a food environment). 14 marketing and market testing staff (university qualified social science graduates responsible for undertaking market surveys and conducting blind tasting and testing with local panels). 7 administrative staff (trained secretarial staff or graduates able to work common office computer system such as Word, Outlook and Excel). Required Information · Details about the local (non-alcoholic) beverage industry (market value, annual production volumes, imports and exports) and details of any relevant agricultural produce (e.g. fruits and dairy). Ideally, we would also seek additional details about local consumer preferences and firms that currently hold significant market share, · Please provide information about skilled labour availability and indicative annual salary costs for each position noted above. · Employment regulations: hiring & firing laws and number of annual working days, hours of work and rules about employing expatriate workers- can our client bring in existing staff from other countries and are there any barriers to the numbers of expatriate staff or their citizenship? How long will permits take? · Location of appropriately zoned industrial sites with excellent logistics and an indication of land costs and/ or availability or existing industrial facilities for rent on the open market. The software inquiry was intended to be more closely aligned to the short-listing phase of a project and thus it requested more specific data. Because of the development gap between OECD high-income economies and less-developed economies, three tiers of inquiry were provided: Group A, OECD and high-income economies, the specifications for the inquiry that is presented below included higher numbers of technical staff (graduates in IT or mathematics, and software developers). Group B, middle-income economies, were asked the same questions, but the numbers of technical staff required were smaller than for Group A. Group C, less-developed economies, were asked the same questions, but the numbers of technical staff required were smaller than for groups A and B. Inquiry 2: Software engineering center ("Group A" example) Project A publicly traded software development company is actively looking for a new software development center to cater especially for international retailers. They have appointed us to carry out appendices 77 more detailed due diligence on a small number of economies. We are looking at 6 locations and plan to select the two most attractive so that we can carry out site visits in August/ September. We have short-listed your location and we are seeking your help to provide information in some additional areas of interest to our client. Company Background The company designs innovative online `experiences' for a wide range of clients- mainly companies in the retail and hospitality sector. They have developed some of the most memorable corporate and consumer Web sites and have won various awards. They also develop sophisticated back end systems, including in-house data management and intranet systems, particularly for hotels. In the future, the client wishes to focus on, and develop its offering to retailers since they are experiencing strong growth in this sector. Project Details The client intends to recruit up to 60 recent graduates in IT or Mathematics from local Universities in Year 1 & 2 of the project but may expand in the future. These graduates will be expected to pass the client's own intensive training program before being accepted onto the latest projects. The client also expects to source around 20 software developers with more than 5 years experience developing software, and recent experience leading teams to deliver projects. Graduates and experienced engineering staff would be expected to have experience in at least one object orientated language (preferably Java), experience in Web site design and preferably with a working knowledge of PHP and SQL. They will also look to the local market for approximately 10 administrative staff. The client has stringent quality assurance guidelines, therefore they will only consider locating their new operation within a major population centre offering a wealth of IT literate graduates from universities with robust academic programs. Required Information 1. A list of the location and name of key Universities for Computing and Mathematics in your region. For each University provide the average number of students graduating per year with: A Bachelors degree in Computing / Mathematics or equivalent qualification; A Masters degree in Computing / Mathematics or equivalent qualification; A PhD degree in Computing / Mathematics or equivalent qualification 2. A list of companies in your region who undertake software development or Web development. We would be grateful if you were able to provide some information on the nature of their business, especially whether there is any niche expertise in software development (e.g. animations etc) and an estimate of their software engineering workforce. 3. Salary costs for graduate software engineers and engineers with 5+ years experience, working within multinational companies. 4. Employment regulations: particularly, rules about employing expatriate workers. Can our client bring in existing experienced staff from other countries and are there any barriers to the numbers of expatriate staff or their citizenship? Are there ratios that need to be maintained and how long will permits take? 78 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa Appendix H. How Scores Are Calculated As stated earlier, final scores were generated as a combination of an IPI's performance in the Web site assessment and the two inquiry-handling assessments. The final score for inquiry handling is the average performance of an IPI in both inquiry-handling assessments. The overall score consisted of 50 percent Web site assessment and 50 percent inquiry handling (50 percent Web site plus 25 percent from each inquiry-handling assessment). Thus, the final score = Web site assessment x 0.5 + (beverage inquiry x 0.25) + (software inquiry x 0.25) Performance for each assessment was scored against a survey form where each question was expressed in a binary form. An IPI either achieved a 1 or a 0 according to whether its performance complied with the question. Web site assessment In total, each Web site was scored against 106 individual questions. Each question was designed to test whether the Web site provided a certain type of information or allowed a user to find certain information. Individual questions were developed to test aspects relating to the four core dimensions (information architecture, design, content, and promotional effectiveness) and within this, subtheme areas such as "contact information" within the promotional effectiveness dimension. Some dimensions have more subthemes than others, and some subthemes have more individual questions. For this reason, a weighting system was applied to ensure that, regardless of the number of individual questions a dimension or subtheme has, the final score for that subtheme or dimension related back to the actual importance of that dimension and subtheme from the investor' perspective. Web site Weight Information Architecture 10% Web-friendly structure 10% Navigation ease 70% Web functionality 20% Design 10% Look & feel 10% Use of graphics 30% Reading ease 60% Content 50% Clarity of purpose 15% Core information provision 20% appendices 79 Sector information provision 35% Credibility of information 10% Currency of information 10% Downloads 5% International accessibility 5% Promotional Effectiveness 30% Web prominence 15% Corporate roles & support 15% Contact information 25% Promotional effectiveness 45% Total 100% Weights have been attributed according to the perspective of a foreign company that is trying to obtain basic information about the location for the purposes of investment long listing and ideally to be able to progress the inquiry further (hence the requirement for accurate, current contact details). Where possible, weights have also been attributed according to more general research around Internet behaviors and preferences of Web users, along with Internet industry standards for best practice. Because the core purpose of a site visit from the users' point of view is to obtain information about the location, content is weighted at 50 percent of the overall score. An attractive Web site that lacks useful data that can inform an investor's decision making will thus only obtain a maximum score of 50 percent. While design is important it is not critical and has been given a weight of only 10 percent. An attractive site is important but a site that is visually unappealing would not prevent a user from obtaining information. Within design, the subtheme "reading ease" has been given a weight of 60 percent. This means that reading ease has an overall weight of 6 percent, or that it accounts for a maximum of 6 out of 100 points (that is, 60 percent of 10 percent). Reading ease was given the highest weighting in this section because the use of Internet writing conventions (short, clear sentences and short paragraphs) ensures that a user can skim the page rather than having to read a text-dense page as they would a book. While "look and feel" is very important, we minimized the weight attributed to this subtheme because we sought to avoid subjective assessments of what looks good on a Web site. We specifically aimed to reduce the potential for Web site reviewers to include their personal qualitative judgments of Web sites. Information architecture refers to the navigation structure and the ease with which a user can find and navigate to key items of interest. Information architecture has been weighted at 10 percent of the overall score, meaning that an IPI could obtain a maximum of 10 points out of 100 for this dimension. In reality, having a strong architecture is critical to having a user-friendly and effective Web site. However, the weight for this was kept at 10 percent because it is the foundation on which 80 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa content is accessible. As such a strong score for information architecture is required for an IPI to score well in content. Promotional effectiveness relates to the extent to which the Web site fulfills one of its core mandates--to promote the location and facilitate investment inquiries. For this reason, the subthemes relate to the extent to which the site is ranked highly on Internet search engines, whether it provides contact details, and whether it presents a case for investment. Many of the dimensions are interrelated--unless a site has a good information architecture, it is unlikely to be able to provide good content (or users will not be able to find content) and similarly there is a relationship between design and promotional effectiveness. Within most dimensions and subthemes, there is a progression from basic attainment towards mastery. For example, within content, unless an IPI is able to provide a good level of core content, it is unlikely to provide good sector content. As our findings have shown, there is also a very strong progression from mastery of the first two dimensions toward the level of attainment in the content and promotional effectiveness dimensions. The weighting reflects this progression and the level of attainment that competence in each theme means for the end user. Inquiry Handling Each inquiry-handling assessment measured IPI performance with 76 individual questions. Each question was designed to test whether a certain action was completed or whether a certain threshold had been met. A similar approach was adopted when attributing weights to the inquiry-handling assessments. In some ways, the attribution of weights for inquiry handling was more straightforward because the inquiry-handling assessments are fundamentally evaluations of a process whereby failure at early stages of a process means failures at later stages. For this reason, consideration was given to the cumulative performance of an IPI throughout the process, rather than simply according to the importance of individual dimensions. As such, although availability and contact-ability (that is, the ease with which an IPI can be successfully contacted) is critical, a higher weighting was not applied because an ability to be contacted presupposes an ability to provide a response. Weights for the inquiry-handling assessment are below: Inquiry Handling Weight Availability and Contactability 10% Web availability 30% Quality of contact details 70% appendices 81 Responsiveness and Handling 15% E-mail and phone responsiveness 40% E-mail handling 10% Call handing 10% Inquiry-handling competence and responsiveness 40% Response 55% Response format 5% Response branding 5% Response organization 5% Answer quality 55% Answer credibility 10% Business case 20% Customer Care 20% Follow up 100% Total 100% Response accounted for 55 percent of an IPI's overall score, with the majority of this relating to the quality of the answers that were provided for each of the questions that IPIs were specifically asked. As with all other aspects being measured, the quality of the answers was evaluated via use of binary questions. IPIs were assessed in terms of whether an answer to a question was provided, whether this directly addressed the specific question asked, and in terms of the thoroughness of the answer and whether evidence was provided in support of the claims made. Another important category within the response dimension is the "business case" subtheme. This was weighted as 20 percent of the score for the dimension and as such contributed to 11 points out of the overall 100 points. There were only five questions in this subtheme making these highly important questions to the overall score of an IPI. A heavy weighting in this instance is believed to be appropriate because unless an IPI is able to provide information in a way that demonstrates the location's advantages for the investor, the IPI fails to perform a promotional function, relying instead on information that may or may not enhance the chances of the location winning the project. Customer care relates to the IPIs' attempts to extract maximum value from the inquiry. Basically it relates to the efforts of the IPI to use the inquiry to develop an ongoing business relationship with the foreign company so as to maximize opportunities to influence the company's decision in the IPI's favor. It represents the final stage of the inquiry-handling process and is the pinnacle of inquiry-handling sophistication. IPIs should strive to use inquiries as the basis for a longer-term relationship with the foreign company whereby the IPI becomes a trusted advisor as opposed to simply an information gateway. For this reason, it has been given a weighting of 20 percent, which means that the six questions in this dimension have a substantial impact on the IPI's score. 82 Global Investment PromotIon benchmarkInG rePort: eyes on comesa The customer care and responsiveness and handling dimensions provide a sound measure of the IPI's project management capability when read together. As such, the two dimensions combined are weighted at 35 percent and this 35 percent effectively measures the project management sophistication of the IPI's project managers. weighted at 35 percent and this 35 percent effectively measures the project management sophistication of the IPI's project managers. appendices 83