Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, April 20, 2018
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Mongolian Government recently concluded the first set of workshops on investment promotion, best-practice principles, and techniques. They are part of a series of capacity-building workshops under the WBG Investment Policy and Agriculture Investment Promotion Project to support Mongolia’s agenda to draw more international investors and offer more investment opportunities.
The workshops were attended by about 50 representatives including officials from Mongolia’s National Development Agency (NDA), which is mandated to lead and coordinate the Government’s FDI planning and promotion efforts. The event also saw the participation of the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry (MOFALI), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ulaanbaatar City Development Corporation.
Zolzaya Dorjtsoo, Senior officer from the Foreign Ministry’s Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation Department, noted: “Promoting viable investment projects through our embassy network is part of our mandate, and the training provided us with useful techniques to formulate and deliver messages to potential investors.”
“We get many requests to promote projects from ministries, but we struggle to package them in an investor-friendly way,” said Tsolmon Gantuya, Senior Specialist at the NDA’s Integrated Investment Policy Division. “The training helped us learn about benchmarking and packaging projects, and also offered fresh perspectives on how to attract investors. We have gained new technical insight into investment promotion, brought to life by case studies. We look forward to additional workshops that would help us develop more project profiles.”
Batbaatar Bayarmagnai, a specialist from MOFALI’s Food safety, Supply and Registration Department, said,
“This training highlighted Mongolia’s FDI potential, and reiterated the need for us to become effective investment promoters. This is especially relevant in the context of our neighboring countries, which offer untapped sources of agribusiness investment. Going forward, we would be keen to learn more about attracting efficiency-seeking FDI, and from the right countries for our niche subsectors. We would also like to understand how to tailor our investment projects and value propositions to investors in different target markets – recognizing cultural differences in doing business.”
The three-day sessions underlined the need for a collaborative, inter-agency approach to investment promotion. They offered a platform for exchanging ideas and discussing perspectives on how the agencies can best work together. Further, the event laid the groundwork for jointly developing investor-friendly promotional materials for key investment project opportunities with a focus on agribusiness.
This collaborative ‘Team Mongolia’-based approach to investment promotion is one of the recommendations in the World Bank Group’s forthcoming
Investment Reform Map
— an initiative being developed in partnership with the Mongolian Government to chart a recommended course for improving Mongolia’s investment climate and maximizing the country’s FDI potential.
“The World Bank Group has been providing policy advice and technical support to Mongolia to enhance investment policy, restore investor confidence, and build capacities,” said Jigjidmaa Dugeree, Project Leader, IFC. “We are encouraged by the positive response and progress of the participants. Going ahead, we will launch these trainings at aimag levels as well by addressing the needs of local governments”.
This project will be delivered by IFC advisory services through the Macroeconomics, Trade & Investment Global Practice of the World Bank Group.
About IFC
IFC—a member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in the toughest areas of the world. In FY17, we delivered a record $19.3 billion in long-term financing for developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to help end poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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