On July 8 in the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, within the Business Forum, part of the Three Seas Initiative, the InvestBulgaria Agency /IBA/ organized a roundtable discussion on “Investment Agencies: Drivers of mutual success for investors and governments”.
A number of institutions in each country are involved in the process of attracting and serving investors included in the 3 seas Initiative. It is necessary to improve the interaction between the Investment promotion agencies (IPA) and to discuss the possibilities for effective cooperation for popularization of the investment opportunities in the region. This, in turn, outlined the main goal of the event, mainly related to the exchange of up-to-date economic information and better communication with the structures responsible for attracting investors, as well as improving interaction in ensuring comprehensive proactive marketing.
During the discussion priority topics were discussed for the member states of the Three Seas Initiative, which are investments in transport, energy and digital infrastructure. In this regards, an agreement was reached at the meeting between the investment promotion agencies of the participating countries.
The economic activity of the region and the volume of attracted foreign direct investments (FDI) are an important factor for achieving the development of world economies and for expected economic growth. In this line of thoughts came the idea of building a joint cooperation between the IPA’s which can be use, not only in the concept of 3 Seas, but also for other future cross-border projects. This will show that these agencies can be both competitors and a lever to achieve common contribution goals across Europe.
The meeting was attended by Mr. Stamen Yanev, Executive Director of IBA, Mr. Krzysztof Drynda, President of the Management Board of the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH), Mr. Kaspars Rožkalns, Director of Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, Joe Philipsz, head of 3SIIF Investments (Amber Infrastructure Group), Mrs. Celine Chazelas-Baur and Antonio Caruso from Directorate General for Competition, European Commission, Bostjan Skalar, Executive director of the World Association of Investment Agencies (WAIPA) and Vladimir Danailov, Executive director and Member of the Board of the Fund of Funds.
