Innovations in Foreign Direct Investment Attraction

Guidelines for IPAs from LAC

It is recommended that every IPA put in place a system to track FDI in their location, 

to ensure that the investment is taking place, and to measure the involvement of the 

IPA in securing in the investment. This is best practice globally.

Developing such a program requires several key steps:

1. Agreeing on the type of FDI to be tracked: The IPA should define the type of FDI 

they would like to track. Most IPAs track greenfield FDI as this is the key mandate 

of almost every IPA in the world. But, as the case of Dubai FDI shows, there is also a 

clear trend in IPAs tracking M&A and New Forms of Investment to enable them to 

have a complete picture of FDI in their location, to provide aftercare services, and be-

cause IPAs increasingly recognize the economic development benefits of non-green-

field types of FDI;

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