IPA to Sensitise On Investments

The goal is to encourage best practices to attract foreign direct investments.

Cameroon's membership into the Steering Committee of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) continues to benefit the country in various ways. Besides accessing technical assistance and advising government on the formulation of appropriate investment promotion policies and strategies, the country through its Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) will sensitise other Investment Promotion Agencies in Africa to come on board WAIPA and benefit from training and best practices.

Through an invitation from the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) Secretariat, IPA Deputy General Manager, Boma Donatus represented the agency in the Steering Committee meeting of WAIPA which took place in Cape Town, South Africa, from January 23 to 24, 2014.

IPA and WAIPA agreed on a programme to visit at least ten IPA's in Africa in 2014 with a view to informing them on the new vision of WAIPA and identifying areas in which WAIPA could assist them in developing innovative investment promotion strategies with a view to attracting foreign direct investments.

Highlights of the meeting consisted in the acceptance by the Steering Committee members of the resignation tendered by the President of the Association, Simon Galpin, who doubles as Director General of Invest in Hongkong, following the vote of no confidence passed on him at the last Steering Committee meeting in Istanbul-Turkey.

Also a new draft strategic plan for 2014 was discussed and adopted in its broad guidelines pending a fine-tuning by the Executive Secretariat. Besides, the committee discussed and adopted new rules of procedure and forwarded to the general assembly for approval.

It should be recalled that Cameroon joined WAIPA six years ago. The world organisation was created in 1995 in Geneva Switzerland and counts more than 350 IPAs across the globe.