Investment Policy and Promotion

Providing Incentives for Investment (January 2010)

Are tax incentives effective at attracting investment or a waste of resources? It depends on the policies used and the sector targeted for investments. This Investment Climate IN PRACTICE note consolidates the policy implications of recent research and offers best practices for incentive policy and administration.

Incentives and Investments: Evidence and Policy Implications (December 2009)

This paper analyzes how investment incentives can be used to foster private investment, particularly in developing countries. What makes such incentives effective? How much should they cost? And how are they linked to policy making and political economy? The assessment draws on existing literature as well as several case studies and surveys conducted for this paper.

Investment Promotion Essentials: What sets the World's Best Investment Facilitators apart from the Rest (September 2009)

This note discusses the 14 common practices of top-performing investment promotion agencies, based on a new survey by the Investment Climate Advisory Services of the World Bank Group. IPAs can inexpensively implement many of these practices to win a larger share of the trillion-dollar market for foreign investment.

A Rough Guide to Investment Climate Reform in Conflict-Affected Countries (July 2009)

This guide is designed to help project teams engaged in investment climate reform in conflict-affected countries more effectively design, plan, implement, and evaluate reform projects. In this guide investment climate refers to government laws, policies, regulations, and procedures that improve institutional governance, bureaucratic efficiency, and industry competitiveness.

Attracting Investment to South East Europe

This FIAS publication, released in November 2007, presents the findings of a survey of foreign corporate executives on the investment opportunities and challenges of South East Europe, a region considered a new frontier for investment within Europe. The findings indicate that an overwhelming majority of foreign investors are encouraged by the region's performance and optimistic about its prospects.

Snapshot Caribbean - Benchmarking FDI Competitiveness in Caribbean Countries (June 2007)

The findings of the report show that these Caribbean countries have experienced a steady inflow of FDI, and despite recent natural disasters that have affected the image of the region, countries have increasingly become internationally competitive in the sectors mentioned above. The region is already famous for its tourism and is now striving to become near-shore locations for investors in the export services and shared services sector, and IT. Endowed with natural raw material resources, the region is also showing competitiveness in developing their regional agribusiness value chain. In order to assist the movements of goods and people, Caribbean countries have established regional bodies such as the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). Please download the complete report in order to learn more about investing in the Caribbean.