TIDA Elected to Eastern European Directorship of WAIPA
Yesterday, the Tatarstan Investment Development Agency (TIDA) was elected to the Eastern Europe Directorship of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) during the Institutional Meeting of the General Assembly of WAIPA in Geneva, Switzerland.
The Institutional Meeting of the General Assembly of WAIPA was held on the first day of the two-day WAIPA World Investment Conference. During the meeting, the current WAIPA President, Apex-Brazil, recapped the achievements of WAIPA from 2011 to 2012 and oversaw the election of the association’s new President, two Vice Presidents, and 11 regional directors.
TIDA clinched the Easter Europe Directorship of WAIPA by unseating the incumbent director, the Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investments, and outperforming a third candidacy by the West Mediterranean Development Agency of Turkey.
WAIPA’s newly elected President is Invest Hong Kong, and the two new Vice Presidents are Trade and Investment South Africa and Invest in Turkey.
As Eastern Europe Director of WAIPA, TIDA will now join the President, Vice Presidents, and 10 other regional directors on the WAIPA Steering Committee, the executive organ of the WAIPA General Assembly t for planning and implementing the associations’ strategy.
In TIDA’s candidacy speech, Chief Executive Linar Yakupov explained the important role that WAIPA has played in the development of TIDA, stressing that this success story might serve as an example that other regional investment promotion agencies in Russia and Eastern Europe could be encouraged to follow.
“We are extremely happy to have been elected Eastern European Director by the General Assembly,” Linar Yakupov explained following the institutional meeting. “TIDA’s election to the Steering Committee of this world-class organization establishes our agency’s role as an authority in investment promotion, not only in Russia and Eastern Europe, but in the global community.”
WAIPA is a non-governmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland founded in 1995 to promote and develop cooperation and the exchange of best practices, experiences in attracting FDI, and information between the world’s investment promotion agencies. The association has 165 member agencies from 122 countries across the world. TIDA became a member of WAIPA in September 2011, and is currently the only member from the Russian Federation.
Since joining WAIPA, TIDA has worked closely with the association. In March 2011, TIDA and WAIPA cohosted KazanInvest: FDI & WAIPA, a seminar that introduced the association to government officials within the Russian Federation. WAIPA Executive Director Carlos Bronzatto also participated in the 2012 International Winter Forum at the Kazan Ski Resort, as one of the panelists in the panel discussion with Prime Minister of Tatarstan Ildar Khalikov.
Entitled “Creating an FDI Virtuous Cycle,” the WAIPA World Investment Conference continues today with three sessions, entitled “Investment in Infrastructure – Foundation of a Virtuous Circle?,” “Effects of Business Rankings and Methods to Affect Rankngs,” and “Human Capital and Innovation Ecosystems to Attract Knowledge-Based FDI.”
Tatarstan Investment Development Agency Press Service