Develop a City Investment Promotion Strategy and Action Plan

An investment promotion strategy provides mayors, city governments and other key decision-makers with a plan for attracting both domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI). It identifies important categories of key constituencies that should be involved in developing the strategy and the mechanisms for involving these key constituencies, and it takes into account the national and/or regional IPA’s investment promotion strategy as well.

Steps for developing a promotion strategy and action plan:

1. Conduct a SWOT analysis using a SWOT matrix: Identify strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the city as an investment location.
2. Identify viable investment opportunities.
3. Develop a sector-based investment promotion strategy, identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing target sectors for attracting development.
4. Develop investment profiles (see template and examples) to succinctly present the opportunity and location. The profile should be based on research of supply/demand factors, markets, competition, selected factor costs (including labor and infrastructure) and well-documented arguments on why this particular city/town would be the best location for this particular investment project.
5. Set investment targets to monitor and evaluate success.

Additional resources:

• Guidance Paper on Evaluating Sustainable FDI
• Handbook for Promoting Foreign Direct Investment in Medium-Size, Low-Budget Cities in Emerging Markets
• World Bank Investment Generation Toolkit