WTO, ITC, WEF Organize Workshop on Adaptation of Investments

On 11 December 2019, Bertelsmann Stiftung, the German Development Institute, International Trade Centre and the World Economic Forum co-organized an expert seminar at the grounds of the WTO in Geneva on “Opportunities and challenges of establishing an international framework on investment facilitation for development in the WTO”. Among the partakers were WTO representatives, also delegates from Investment Promotion Agencies, academia, the private sector, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations.

The workshop acknowledged key processes that governments can take to accommodate investment flows and, particularly, investment flows that contribute as much as possible to the sustainable growth of the ‘developing’ and ‘least developed’ economies. The primary results of the workshop were reported to the WTO’s Structured Discussions on Investment Facilitation that took place on 12 December 2019. 

Karl P. Sauvant, who is the executive director of the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment at Columbia University and one of the main moderators of the summit issued a speech in writing, where he states: “The Workshop’s discussions confirmed that key areas of investment facilitation are: transparency and predictability of investment measures; streamlining and speeding up administrative procedures and requirements; enhancing international cooperation, information sharing and the exchange of best practices; and the development dimension.”

By B.Alexishvili