Investment Facilitation for Sustainable Development: Getting it right for developing countries

The author contends that investment facilitation is too complex for the WTO's rule-making framework and should instead be handled through technical assistance and capacity building. This position is supported by a workshop with Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, where participants rejected international legal obligations in favor of national, regional, and multilateral support for informed decision-making and the assessment of investment proposals.

• Investment facilitation differs fundamentally from trade facilitation because investment is a long-term process involving a vast array of laws and complex review processes that can take two to three years, impacting various economic and community stakeholders.
• A workshop with 13 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) found that no investment facilitation elements were best addressed through international legal obligations; instead, participants preferred a mix of national, regional, and multilateral actions.
• Developing countries identified their primary needs as technical assistance for assessing applications, benchmarking best practices, and enhancing the capacity of governments to analyze investment proposals and investor track records.
• There is significant opposition among developing countries to WTO-led investment facilitation; while 30 signatories of the Joint Ministerial Statement on Investment Facilitation for Development identify as developing countries, 85 developing country members opposed these WTO efforts.

APA

Brauch,, M. D. (2019). Investment Facilitation for Sustainable Development: Getting it right for developing countries. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/investment-facilitation-sustainable-development-getting-it-right

Chicago

Brauch,, Martin Dietrich. Investment Facilitation for Sustainable Development: Getting it right for developing countries. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2019. https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/investment-facilitation-sustainable-development-getting-it-right.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Brauch, |first1=Martin Dietrich |title=Investment Facilitation for Sustainable Development: Getting it right for developing countries |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=26 August 2019 |url=https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/investment-facilitation-sustainable-development-getting-it-right |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{brauch2019investment, author = {Brauch,, Martin Dietrich}, title = {{Investment Facilitation for Sustainable Development: Getting it right for developing countries}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2019}, month = aug, url = {https://www.iisd.org/articles/policy-analysis/investment-facilitation-sustainable-development-getting-it-right}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }