Outgoing vice president of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies, Emmanuel Naiko, maintains that investment promotion agencies (IPAs) must adopt measures that attract FDI primarily focused on building a sustainable cadre of skilled labour in developing countries.

In his farewell statement, the former chief executive officer of the Tanzania Investment Agency requested IPAs to encourage governments to put in place competitive and informed regulatory authorities that will address the gap in educational competitiveness between countries in the economic north and those in the economic south. He said that the low rankings that African countries received in the area of ‘higher education and training’ in the 2011 Global Competitiveness Report, highlights critical shortages of skilled labour in the continent, something that can only be solved by African IPAs sensitising governmental officials on the issue of global competitiveness through policy advocacy.