Christina Knutsson, is a director of GDP Global since 2005. She has 16 years' direct experience in economic promotion, working with and on behalf of European, African and Latin Americ...
Occasionally we lucky people at GDP Global get the opportunity to work with IPAs from the least developed countries LDCs. Recently as part of a workshop in Phnom Penh for the IPAs of Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam we all developed some excellent ideas on the kind of things any IPA should be doing. With competition for investment in Asia being so tough every little tip and trick can help. Here just a few of the main things that were agreed IPAs should look out for – they cost little or no money to implement….:
1. Undertake a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) both on your country and also on your own agency. Undertake the SWOT analysis independently of the agency staff as well, so that you get impartial and professional insights from a third party.
2. Produce and use a marketing brochure, both in print form and in electronic soft copy. This should feature the key facts about the country; explain the foreign direct investment FDI investment successes of the country; the main sectors of interest; the unique sales propositions USPs of the country for foreign investors; and finally a thorough introduction to the IPA, and its information and service provision to investors.
3. Check your IPA website search engine findability. Can you find it via Google searches? Try running typical search terms in Google, or any of the main search engines, that an investor might use. In Cambodia’s case a ready made garment RMG manufacturer thinking about investing in Asia might type in “garment sector Asia” or “garment industry Cambodia”. If your agency does not feature on the first page of results for typical searches that reflect your target sectors then you have some work to do!
4. Monitor investment enquiries and recent investment projects. Don’t wait till investors contact you – be proactive. Ensure that staff are making email and telephone contact with these companies so that you can provide further assistance when necessary. And please don’t say that you are not allowed to make phone calls! As an IPA director you must prioritise that your team has the telephone skills and the determination to provide this kind of customer service, and the budget for phone calls.
5. Set up an investors’ forum in your country. You should find a way to invite your investors to get together with you and your ministry maybe twice a year. Investors can get to share their experiences and also advise you of changes to the business environment that will help them be more successful. You and your IPA may even be able to help them yourselves!
I will feature more essential tips soon. As a result of our workshop the IPAs CDC/CIB Cambodia, Invest in Lao and FIA Vietnam have a much longer list of short and medium term actions that they are now working on – most will cost little or no money to implement, just some dedication!
In the meantime if you are from these IPAs or indeed from any IPA, and you want to share your views then please reply online to this blog. Thanks for reading 
