The Tribune

The Bahamas will host a meeting of the Caribbean’s Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) on November 27-28, 2012.

Entitled ‘Strengthening our Foundation, Expanding our Reach’, the two-day conference will explore strategic approaches for increased collaboration between investment promotion agencies within the framework of a Caribbean Association of Investment Promotions Agencies (CAIPA).

CAIPA said investors view the Caribbean region as a whole, prior to fine-tuning their selection processes to a single territory. To promote the region, it added that integration objectives can be enhanced by the strengthening of the Caribbean as an economic bloc, increasing its attraction to investors.

The development of a work programme for 2013, which that positions the Caribbean for investments and creates economies of scale in the use of scarce investment promotion resources, is a key objective of the conference.

CAIPA noted that therecession had resulted in a scarcity of foreign investment (FDI), and increased competition to attract it.

The conference will also seeks to reinforce the relevance and importance of a regional association of investment promotion agencies. There will also be an increased focus on exchange of information on regional best practices.

The conference will be attended by the heads of agencies, and senior staff members, of the investment promotion agencies within the Caribbean who are members of CAIPA.

Speaking at the event will be Prime Minister Perry Christie and Paul Wessendorp, chief of the investment promotion section, division on investment and enterprise, for the UN body, UNCTAD.

Representatives from the World Bank and a key investment promotion partner in South America, ProNicaragua, will also be in attendance.

There will be panel discussions on the development of a regional investment promotion strategy, and an investor roundtable assessing the challenges being faced by regional investors and the opportunities in the Caribbean that are available to existing investors for expansion and re-investment.

The CAIPA Annual General Assembly is hosted by Caribbean Export Development Agency (CEDA) in its role as the CAIPA Secretariat, and forms a part of the regional private sector programme funded by the European 
Union (EU) under the 10th EDF.