WAIPA: The impact of Covid-19 from the perspective of IPAs

The COVID-19 has transformed the landscape of global trade and investment promotion. IPAs have been at the forefront to curb the the impact of the pandemic on trade promotion. WAIPA carried out a survey to find out the main challenges investment promotion agencies had to face to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 shock.

The WAIPA report “The impact of COVID-19 from the perspective of IPAs” was produced on the basis of data collected through a survey submitted to 174 investment promotion agencies between March and April 2020. The survey has been useful to identify the sectors most affected by the pandemic (among them, HoReCa, tourism industry and travel related services) and also to frame IPAs’ take on the impact of COVID-19 on FDI.

As WAIPA noted, IPAs feedback on this issue “overlaps in general with the current predictions of UNCTAD. All respondents expect a decline in FDI, where 25 percent expects a decline in a range of 20-30 percent, 21 percent expect a moderate decline of merely up to 10 percent, 19 percent expect decline without reference to its intensity, 19 percent expect a decline by more that 30 percent, and 17 percent expect a decline in a range of 10-20 percent”.

The report can be downloaded here