Investment Promotion Activities
a). Image building
b). Investment generation
c). Investors servicing and facilitation.
Broadly, investment promotion involves three basic functions:
Accordingly, the agency is structured to handle these functions and will ultimately result in a one stop shop for facilitation and servicing of investors. The agency is also aware of the fact that they will not be the only institution that will be dealing with investors as Ministries and other government institutions will be engaged the similar activities. The agency will therefore be challenged to develop a collaborative framework to address this issue until these occurrences are minimised.
Investment Generation
For SLIEPA, conducting investment generation activities will be a short to medium term activity. Once the promotional material is in place and the sector studies have been conducted, the agency will have a number of promotional tools with which to approach investors. Through training on general investment promotion and more detailed investor targeting activities training to be conducted on a sub-sector specific basis Such activities may include direct mail or telemarketing campaigns, or sector-specific investment missions and information seminars, and firm-specific research leading to “sales” presentations as investment-generating.
Investor Servicing, Facilitation and Aftercare
A medium-term activity that SLIEPA will need to undertake is investor aftercare. This activity has become increasingly important during the current financial crisis, as competition for global FDI increases, and focus falls on ensuring that the current FDI stays in the country Investor Aftercare can have a number of objectives, including: facilitating reinvestment, expansions and diversification, anchoring foreign investment, providing the factor conditions to encourage existing investors to upgrade their activities and identifying ‘ambassadors’ and testimonials. At this early stage Aftercare services are also important since it promotes and facilitates ongoing dialogue with strategic investors and helps set an investment climate improvement agenda. This may include servicing foreign as well as local investors
Export Development
The Agency also has the responsibility of developing the Export potential of the country. The country as it is has a very small and relatively poor domestic market; therefore growth will need to come from expanding production of traditional and non-traditional exports. There is considerable potential for expanded trade and growth in the areas of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, Fishing, Mining and Tourism.
The main functions of the Export Promotion department of the agency are thus:
- Encourage and promote the development and diversification of Export products – traditional and non-traditional – in order to impact the economy
- Facilitate the export operations of small scale producers and manufacturers.
- Increase awareness of the potential of exports in value added products.
- Identify potential exporters and encourage them to invest in agriculture and other sectors of the economy.
- Identify products with Export potential and identify marketing opportunities.
The following non-traditional export products have been identified for Development and Export:
- Ginger
- Cashew
- Chili (Pepper)
- Palm Oil
- Fruits and Vegetables
- Cassava
