Bridgetown, BARBADOS - Targeting existing investors to
reinvest in the Caribbean and creating linkages in the domestic economy
between investors and local suppliers to drive investment growth were
issues at the centre of the strategy recommended to the region’s’
Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) at the recently held workshop
facilitated by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean
Export) in collaboration with the Caribbean Association of Investment
Promotion Agencies (CAIPA) on 27-28 July in St. Lucia.
During
the workshop, 22 representatives from 11 IPAs across the Caribbean
region were exposed to best practices in facilitating existing investors
and in key account management. “It takes up to 3 years to secure an
investment from a greenfield project”, noted the CAIPA President, McHale
Andrew of Invest Saint Lucia, “but it can take as little as 1 year to
secure additional investments from an existing investor. With the
current challenges of reduced promotional budgets and a demand for
increased foreign investment and jobs, it seems logical that we seek to
engage further with those investors who have already partnered with us”,
continues the CAIPA President.
The training forms a part of
initiatives undertaken through the provision of funding assistance by
the Inter-American Development Bank under a Regional Public Goods
Programme entitled “Support for Foreign Direct Investment in the
Caribbean.” The main objective of this project is to assist the
Caribbean Investment Promotion Agencies in the positioning of the region
as a location for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and to present the
Caribbean as a single investment destination. The project is jointly
financed with Caribbean Export and CAIPA.
During the workshop, it
was highlighted that already a significant portion of investments into
the region come from reinvestments but these figures are not monitored
nor incorporated as FDI. The training of the IPAs forms part of a
broader initiative to develop a reinvestment programme for CAIPA and to
track reinvestment figures within the Caribbean. Preliminary results
from a survey of existing investors, which forms a part of this project,
indicates an interest or plans by more than 50% of existing investors
to expand within the host country or within the region. “Moreover,”
notes the Executive Director of Caribbean Export, Mrs. Coke Hamilton,
“the region’s best ambassadors and attractors of new investors are our
existing investors. We treat them right, and we are already halfway to
reaching our investment, jobs and export targets.”
This
initiative will see the development of strategies within regional IPAs
to address the needs of existing investors and to assist them in
expansion plans across the region. Participating IPAs included: Invest
Barbados, the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA), the Belize Trade &
Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE), Curacao Investment and
Export Promotion Agency (CINEX), the Grenada Industrial Development
Corporation (GIDC), the Centre for Facilitation of Investments in Haiti,
Invest Saint Lucia
(ISL), Jamaica Promotion Corporation
(JAMPRO), InvestSVG (St. Vincent & the Grenadines), the Investment
and Development Corporation of Suriname (IDCS), and iInvesTT (Trinidad
& Tobago).