WTO members face a huge challenge to tackle declining foreign direct investment (FDI) flows as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to UNCTAD, global FDI contracted by 35% in 2020, compared to the previous year, due to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The world, and particularly the developing world, needs investment to invest in productive capacity and enhance recovery to reach the Sustainable Development Goals by the end of the decade.

Since a fundamental component of the recovery will be to boost FDI, the significance of the negotiations of WTO members on an agreement on investment facilitation for development is crucial. A successful outcome of this Joint Statement Initiative, launched at the WTO Ministerial Conference in 2017, can contribute to revitalizing the global investment landscape through enhanced transparency and predictability, streamlined procedures, use of e-government services and strengthened international cooperation, with a view to advancing sustainable development. Investors would benefit, among other things, from information about national investment frameworks that can be accessed easily, application processes that are more efficient, better conflict avoidance mechanisms, and procedures that can be carried out online. Host countries, on their part, would benefit from more FDI and, among other things, the promotion of responsible business practices on the part of investors.

The session will review the progress that has been made during almost four years of structured discussions on an Investment Facilitation Framework for Development at the WTO, and provide an overview of the dynamic negotiations ahead of the 12^th Ministerial Conference at the end of the year. The session will look into how a reform agenda on investment facilitation for development can deliver positive results for developing and least-developed countries, and help countries recover from the pandemic and support sustainable development. The session will also focus on the importance of technical assistance and capacity development for developing and least developed countries to ensure the implementation of investment reforms. The discussion will be based partly on the experience gathered in the framework of the ITC-DIE project on Investment Facilitation for Development, the main results of which are contained here: https://www.intracen.org/publication/investment-facilitation-for-development-toolkit-policymakers/

Participation in the session is free of charge. However, it is necessary to register for the event (please click here), to receive the meeting link details. 

The session will have the following agenda and speakers:

Welcome and introduction by the chair

• Karl P. Sauvant, Resident Senior Fellow, Columbia University, CCSI

Speakers:

The importance of investment facilitation for development in enhancing resilience beyond COVID-19

• Dorothy Tembo, Deputy Executive Director, ITC

The state of play of the WTO negotiations on investment facilitation for development ahead of the 12^th Ministerial Conference

• Mathias Franke Ambassador of Chile to the WTO, Coordinator of the Structured Discussions on Investment Facilitation for Development

Implementation gaps of investment facilitation measures and technical assistance needs

• Axel Berger, Senior Researcher, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

Strengthening the development dimension: Important, effective and innovative investment facilitation measures to incentivize sustainable FDI for sustainable development

• Valéria Mendes Costa, First Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil

Concluding remarks

• Karl P. Sauvant, Resident Senior Fellow, Columbia University, CCSI

Bios:

Axel Berger

Axel Berger is a Senior Researcher at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). He works on the design, effects and diffusion patterns of international trade and investment agreements, with a focus on emerging markets and developing countries. Other areas of current research include the effects of an international investment facilitation framework, the impact of free trade agreements on upgrading within global value chains and the role of the G20 in global governance. He teaches international political economy at the University of Bonn and regularly advises developing countries, development agencies and international organisations on trade and investment matters.

Valéria Mendes Costa

Valéria Mendes Costa is a diplomat at the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She currently works in the Services and Industry Promotion Department, dealing with investment issues. Previously, she served in the Brazilian Mission to the WTO, where she was in charge of dispute settlement. She has a Bachelor's degree in law from the Catholic University of São Paulo, a Master Degree in Political Science from Sciences Po - Paris and a Master Degree in International Dispute Settlement from the Graduate Institute - Geneva.

Mathias Francke

Mathias Francke is Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Chile to the WTO and Coordinator of the Structured Discussions on Investment Facilitation for Development. Previously, he was APEC SOM Chair (2019), Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs, Director for Bilateral Economic Affairs, Chief of Cabinet, and senior advisor at the Chilean Vice Minister of Trade. As a Foreign Service officer since 1989, he was posted at the Embassy of Chile in the UK (2014 to 2018), Chile’s Permanent Mission to the WTO (2000 to 2005, and as Deputy Head of Mission from 2006 to 2010) and the Trade Office of the Embassy of Chile in the USA (1992 to 1996). He is a lawyer from the Catholic University of Chile.

Karl P. Sauvant

Karl P. Sauvant introduced the idea of an International Support Program for Sustainable Investment Facilitation in the E15 Task Force on Investment Policy in 2015. From there, the proposal was taken forward in the WTO. He has written extensively on this subject (see https://ssrn.com/author=2461782 ), participated in various events relating to it and currently assists the ITC and DIE on a project on Investment Facilitation for Development. He retired in 2005 as Director of UNCTAD’s Investment Division and established, in 2006, what is now the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI). He stepped down as the Center’s Executive Director in 2012, to focus his work, as a CCSI Resident Senior Fellow, on teaching, research and writing.

Dorothy Tembo

Dorothy Tembo has served as Deputy Executive Director of the International Trade Centre (ITC) since June 2014, as well as ITC’s Executive Director ad interim from January to September 2020. Prior to ITC, she served as the Executive Director of the multi-donor funded Enhanced Integrated Framework Programme (EIF) at the WTO. She also served as Chief Trade Negotiator and Director of Foreign Trade in the Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry of Zambia, as Advisor on USAID projects in Zambia, and held various positions in Zambia's National Commission for Development Planning.