Introduction
International trade and foreign direct investment are crucial to the creation of successful economies.
This course consists of two modules, one on trade and one on foreign direct investment. The modules can either be done together to form a week or separately where only trade or investment is wanted.
The course will provide people from central governments ( foreign, trade, and economic ministries) and from economic development organisations at sub national levels with an excellent understanding of how governments and the wider public sector can help to build success in international trade and to grow their economies through foreign direct investment.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT MODULE I: FOREIGN DIRECT
Overview
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays a vital role in a country’s economic success. Investment attraction is becoming increasingly competitive. Countries and sub national jurisdictions need to differentiate themselves from the competition if they are to become or remain attractive destinations for FDI.
The course is run by experts and includes lectures and interactive sessions.
Topics Include:
- Introduction to FDI
- The history of investment attraction
- Mega trends affecting the investment landscape
- Investment as a driver of development and growth
- Developing FDI strategies- including competing for investment, destination marketing, handling investor enquiries, company targeting and lead generation, proposition development and retaining FDI
- Measuring the impact of interventions to attract FDI
- Organisational design of investment promotion agencies
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course delegates understand:
- The principles of FDI and the evolving landscape
- How economic development organisations at sub national and national levels can improve their competitive position in investment attraction
- How to improve destination marketing, company targeting, proposition development and client handling
- How to enhance organisational capacity to improve investment attraction
How you will benefit
- Improved understanding of the drivers of FDI
- New ideas for how to improve client handling
- New ideas for how your organisation can enhance positioning in the increasingly competitive FDI landscape
- Improved understanding of how to measure success
INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INVESTMENT MODULE 2: STRATEGIC TRADE
International trade plays a very important role in helping to build successful and resilient economies. Interventions by governments and other public sector organisations play an increasingly important part in helping to build business success in international markets.
The course is run by experts and includes lectures and interactive sessions.
Topics Include:
- Introduction to international trade
- Global trends in trade
- Trade policy and the world framework for international trade
- Working with stakeholders
- The rise of protectionism
- Free, fair and ethical trade strategies
- The evidence base for exporting
- Developing strategies for trade development and trade promotion - including capacity building, design of services, charging policy and decisions on sector and market focus
- Best practice examples from Trade Promotion Organisations
- The interface between trade policy and trade promotion
- Measuring the impact of interventions to promote trade
- Organisational design for Trade Promotion Organisations
- Action planning
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course delegates will understand:
- The principles of international trade and the evolving world framework
- How their organisations can work with companies to help them to develop the capacity to export and to succeed in international markets
- The importance of free, fair and ethical trade
- The interface between trade policy and trade promotion
- How to evaluate the impact of interventions
- How to enhance organisational capacity to undertake trade development and trade promotion
How you will benefit
- Improved knowledge of international trade
- Improved understanding of how public sector interventions can contribute to business success in international markets
- New ideas about how to design interventions to promote trade
- Increased understanding of how to measure success
Agenda
Day One -Monday: Investment and International Trade Modular 1: Investment
- - Overview of the Week
- - Overview of the Week
- - Delegates' introductions and discussion
- - Definition of FDI
- - Why is FDI important
- - Mega trends shaping the global investment landscape
- - Different forms of investment
- - History of investment attraction
- - How do you do investment attraction?
- - How do you work with business?
- - Identification of comparative advantage
- - Which markets, sectors and companies to target
- - Business environment · Investor protection
- - Transparency and accountability
- - Use of incentives
- - Freeports and special economic zones
- - Why companies expand abroad
- - Location decision making process
- - Quality and cost factors
- - Who to interact with and how
- - What is effective marketing
- - Destination marketing
- - Best practice examples
- - Destination versus proposition marketing
- - Evolution of destination marketing
- - Key messages in your country?
Day Two – Tuesday: Investment and International Trade Modular 1: Investment
- - Why is good enquiry handling important?
- - Challenges of investment attraction
- - Consistency of message
- - Enquiry handling techniques
- - Prioritising enquiries
- - How do you do enquiry handling?
- - Why target companies
- - How to be a good salesperson
- - Step by step approach to targeting
- - Channels
- - Best practice example
- - How do you generate leads and target companies ?
- - Importance for growth
- - Key account management
- - Value propositions
- - Tiers of clients
- - Processes
- - How do you measure impact?
- - Exploring marketing messaging
Day Three – Wednesday: Investment and International Trade Modular 1: Investment
- - Structure and organizational design
- - Decisions on focus – markets, sectors, clients
- - Strategy
- - Presence overseas
- - Skill sets of staff
- - Culture/ values
- - Alignment of staff with strategy
- - Training
Day Three – Wednesday: International Trade & Investment Module 2: Trade
- - What is international trade
- - Comparative advantage
- - Trade liberalization
- - Protectionism
- - How do you promote trade?
- - How do you work with business?
- - Benefits of exporting to companies and the wider economy
- - Case studies
Day Four – Thursday: International Trade & Investment Module 2: Trade
- - The evolution of the rules based system, from the GATT to the WTO, successes and problems
- - Different types of trade agreements
- - Current trends and challenges
- - National political drivers of equitable policies
- - Consumer drivers of fair-trade policies and implications for multinational business and producer countries
- - Multilateral ethical trade strategies and vested national, commercial, and sectoral interests
Day Five – Friday: International Trade & Investment Module 2: Trade
- - Factors to consider
- - Promotion of benefits of exporting
- - Capacity building
- - Range of services
- - Decisions on focus
- - Charging policy
- - Deciding on the trade offer
- - How to assess whether a company is export –ready?
- - Targets
- - Metrics
- - Surveys of clients
- - Feedback into resource allocation
- - How do you measure impact?
- - Structure and organizational design
- - Decisions on focus – markets, sectors, clients
- - Strategy
- - Channels
- - Presence overseas
- - Skill sets of staff
- - Culture / values
- - Alignment of staff with strategy
- - Training
Accredited by
International Centre for Parliamentary Studies is accredited by Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities (ASIC) which is an independent body providing accreditation services for independent, further and higher education colleges. The Institution has earned Premier status with ASIC for its commendable areas of operation.
ASIC accreditation helps students and parents make a more informed choice and will also help a school, college, university, training provider or distance education provider, demonstrate to the international student body that they are a high quality institution.
What Learners Say
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia
“ Event was well organized, with lot of interesting materials and discussions. Event presented chance to deepen my knowledge in investment attraction and export promotion. I think, acquired knowledge will greatly help me to improve quality of my work. I would highly recommend to my colleagues. “
Welsh Government
“ I want to say particular thanks to the trainer (and other speakers) for the excellent delivery of this course, which was delivered in a very clearly articulated way and demonstrated their depth of the trainers' experience in this field, which was very beneficial to me (and i particularly liked the use of real life examples used throughout the course). “