How solve investment promotion puzzle

Nearly every country in the world has established an investment promotion agency (IPA) to attract and retain foreign direct investment (FDI) in both greater quantities and of higher “quality.” Meanwhile and despite the popularity of these agencies, the literature on investment promotion and its effects on FDI has been very limited. As a result, several open questions exist in this important policy area: we know little about what IPAs look like in different countries, what they do, how they do it, and whether and to what extent they make a difference. 

“How to Solve the Investment Promotion Puzzle” aims to fill in this gap by providing detailed consistent information on the organization, functions and activities, and operational modalities of IPAs across over 50 countries in LAC and OECD, distilling similarities and differences within and across regions and creating a new basis for peer-to-peer benchmarking and analysis of their impact. As such, it can serve as a useful guide for professionals and policymakers to help solve the investment promotion puzzle and accordingly design better policies for FDI.

The information presented in this report was prepared based on a survey conducted in 2017 to the 51 IPA of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The main findings can be summarized through a series of indicators that are presented in the following graphs.