Innovations in Foreign Direct Investment Attraction

Guidelines for IPAs from LAC

Invest in Canada Bureau provides an innovative case of how national IPAs in LAC 

could support subnational investment promotion, which can be adapted based on 

the specific needs and circumstances of each country.

 Key steps in developing a subnational support program include:

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1. 

Determining the objectives of the program: In the case of Invest in Canada it is to 

attract greenfield FDI to Canada by co-funding capacity building, strategy develop-

ment, tools and materials development, and lead generation activities of subnational 

IPAs. In the LAC context, the specific objectives are likely to vary considerably across 

countries. For example, in small countries it may not be necessary for subnational IPAs 

to have lead generation capability, so the focus may be more on research capability 

and investment services and facilitation while in large diverse countries, marketing 

resources and lead generation capability are likely to be much more important for sub-

national IPAs;