The World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies, together with Promos and Regione Lombardia, planned and promoted the 14th edition of the WAIPA World Investment Conference (12-14 October 2009).
International speakers, who met for the first time in Italy, had the chance to:
- share views on perspectives of foreign direct investments
- share common guidelines and tools to boost investments through the global crisis
Almost 100 Investment Attraction agencies, from 80 different countries, attended the conference along with 400 managers, State Officials and opinion leaders.
On the morning of Columbus Day, more than 60 representatives from the different European Agencies seated at a round table on collaboration between Local and National agencies. In the afternoon Waipa General Assembly approved a new statute allowing a greater openness of the association towards the entrepreneurial world. On October 13th and 14th the Conference opened to the public.
Institutional speakers
- Carlo Sangalli President of Milan Chamber of Commerce
- Roberto Formigoni President of Regione Lombardia
- Alessandro Teixeira President WAIPA
Investment support intervention policies
- Beatriz Nofal President of ProsperAR, investments attraction agency, Argentina
- Mohammed Abdul Aziz Al Shihhi UAE Under Secretary of the Ministry of economy
- Natalie Cely Ecuador - Minister of the Economic Development
- Hans Eichel Germany’s former Minister of Finances
Opportunities arisen from the crisis
- Aparna Dutt Sharma President of the Indian Equity Foundation
- Giorgio Basile CEO of ISAGRO S.p.A.– Italy
- Helmut Schmidt CEO of EPG Engineered Nano Products – Germany
- Marco Stefanini CEO of Stefanini IT Solutions - Brasil
- David Crackett Senior Partner of Deloitte
Investments financial support
- Enrico Vitali Member of Italy’s Foreign Investments Strategic Committee
- Josep Borrell Fontelles former President of EU Parliament
- Walter Ambrogi Director of Intesa San Paolo S.p.A. Global Research Area
- Norbert Walter Director of Deutsche Bank Research
Foreign investments perspectives
- Jacques Attali President of Planet Finance
- Lanfranco Senn President of Metropolitana Milanese S.p.A.
- Changqi Wu Lecturer at Guanghua School of Management in Beijing
- Max Otte Lecturer of Corporate Finance at Fachhochschule Worms in Germany
- Graham Matthews Lecturer and Director of New Zealand’s Investments Attraction Agency
The gala dinner and more than 50 bilateral meetings between agencies and entrepreneurs concluded the 2009 Waipa Conference.