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investment packages to potential European investors. The
mission also allowed the CAIPA members to visit business parks
in Europe and garner key contacts for added information.
Discussions with the three main agencies responsible
for investment facilitation, namely, Forfás, the Industrial
Development Authority (IDA) and Enterprise Ireland, increased
understanding on how Ireland has been able to distinguish itself
in specific growth areas and has focused attention on building
local expertise and generating business linkages between
foreign and local firms.
The visit to Invest in Brussels Agency, Belgium and to Invest in
Austria, in Austria, exposed the Caribbean IPAs to the complexity
of promoting a diverse region and partnering with independent
IPAs within the same country to attract investments for the entire
country - lessons that augur well for CAIPA’s partnership with the
IPAs in the region for investment facilitation.
The other major institutions and sites visited in Belgium
included: the Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE),
EIB, Pro€nvest Management Unit, European Commission (EC),
Flanders Trade and Invest (FTI), Wallonia Foreign Trade and
Investment Agency (AWEX) and the ACP Secretariat. In Austria
the delegation visited: CIMA VIP Business Park, Civitas Nova,
Software Park in Hagenberg, Research Institute for Symbolic
Computation (RISC) Institute, a Business park in the Rainbach
and the Wirtschaftsagentur Wien.
CAIPA Mission to Latin America
During the period June 25-July 2, 2011, a contingent of 21
Investment Promotion officials from 14 IPAs who are member
states of CAIPA visited Brazil and Chile on a best practice study
tour of APEX Brazil and PROCHILE. The CAIPA members also
had an opportunity to hold discussions with key public and
private sector organisations that were critical to the process of
facilitating both inward and outward investments in two of the
strongest emerging economies in Latin America.
This initiative sought to: garner best practices on investment and
trade promotions from the IPAs and Trade Promotions Agencies
in Latin America; increase the visibility of the Region as an ideal
location for investments; and begin the process of developing
Enhancing BSO Capacity