PRONicaragua organizes First Summit of Investment Promotion Agencies of Central America and Panama

Sept. 10, 2010 - PRLog -- PRONicaragua, the official investment promotion agency of Nicaragua and member of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies’ (WAIPA) Steering Committee, recently organized the 1st Summit of Investment Promotion Agencies of Central America and Panama in Managua, Nicaragua.

The objective of the event was to promote the convergence between the region’s IPAs in order to foster an environment that will allow the institutional strengthening of the agencies and the inclusion of investment attraction as a priority within the region´s economic agenda.

Participants included Mr. Carlos Bronzatto, Chief Executive Officer of WAIPA, representatives from Guatemala’s Trade & Invest, El Salvador’s PROESA, Costa Rica’s CINDE and Honduras’ FIDE, as well as representatives from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Swiss Development Cooperation (COSUDE, for its acronym in Spanish), Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration, and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.

The summit´s program gave each IPA the opportunity to make a presentation about their institutional structure, capabilities and scope of action, it also included discussion boards for the formulation of the general guidelines of a work program aimed at developing a regional network.

The meeting helped create greater awareness of the positive effects of investment attraction in poverty reduction and sustainable economic development, as well as the impact of these initiatives in the promotion of regional economic integration.

One of the agreements reached during the meeting was the opening of a regional office that will develop the work plan and agenda for the IPAs in Central America and Panama. This office will promote and facilitate the constant interaction between the IPAs in the region, fostering practical collaboration to promote regional investment projects and conduct joint international campaigns and initiatives.