MIGA Partners with US Commerce Department on FDI Xchange: Commerce to provide information on investment opportunities in Eurasia

MIGA Partners with US Commerce Department on FDI Xchange: Commerce to provide information on investment opportunities in Eurasia

WASHINGTON, DC, June 18, 2002 — The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, today announced a partnership in which the US Commerce Department will distribute information on direct investment and joint venture opportunities through FDI Xchange, MIGA's email service on investment prospects in developing countries. Content will be provided by Commerce's Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States (BISNIS).

FDI Xchange  is a web- and email-based service that provides investors, advisors, and financial institutions with customized investment information in a single, free package. Periodic email updates-tailored to match the user's country, topic, and sectoral interests-contain timely business information from emerging markets worldwide. Users can also access a web-based archive of information. MIGA provides this free service as part of its mandate
to facilitate foreign direct investment into its developing member countries.

BISNIS is the US government's primary resource center for US companies exploring business opportunities in the former Soviet republics. Its Search for Partners program identifies proposals by NIS companies that seek long-term cooperation with US firms for specific projects and activities. Local representatives in NIS countries work with other US technical assistance programs, banks, private sector firms, business associations, and with local, municipal and federal governments within their regions to source promising opportunities. BISNIS also cooperates with the International Science and Technology Center in Moscow to identify attractive technology commercialization projects.

Trevor Gunn, Director of BISNIS, said: "Collaboration with MIGA's innovative FDI Xchange program will extend our reach to a greater audience of interested investors and business people, allowing increased impact for BISNIS' leads."

MIGA's content partners include a range of government and private sector organizations involved in foreign direct investment. These partners disseminate a variety of current investment information resources, including industry sector analysis, market research, information on new investment incentives and changes in the legal environment for foreign investment-as well as specific investment opportunities arising from privatization and government initiatives.

"FDI Xchange addresses one of the major challenges to attracting investment into the developing world, which is getting the right information into the right hands," said Wille. "This new partnership will help us offer our FDIX clients greater access to company and market information on NIS countries."

MIGA also operates the Investment Promotion Network, a portal website for the international investment community, and PrivatizationLink, which provides information on upcoming privatization sales in developing countries, along with related legal and procedural information. These online services, established in the mid-1990s, currently catalog over 11,000 investment information resources from the World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund, and more than 600 other public and private sources.

For information
On MIGA, contact:
Stephan Dreyhaupt, sdreyhaupt@worldbank.org,
t. 202.458.2943
On BISNIS, contact:
Ellen House, ellen_house@ita.doc.gov,
t. 202.482.2284