PRONicaragua Recognized as the Agency with "Best Practices" in Investment Promotion Worldwide by the World Bank

    WASHINGTON, DC, April 25, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- PRONicaragua stood out with the best results among all investment promotion agencies in the world in the 2012 Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking, recently published by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

Among the 189 institutions evaluated, PRONicaragua was the only institution to achieve a rating of "best practice", the highest distinction awarded by the study in each of the three evaluations implemented. This edition marks the first time in history that a non-member country of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) receives such recognition.

Robert Whyte, the World Bank's Project Manager for the GIPB 2012, mentioned that with FDI levels only slowly recovering post-crisis, it is more important than ever for government agencies to be highly responsive to the needs of potential investors as they search for new investment locations, adding that "PRONicaragua, as the world's top performer in the World Bank Group's GIPB 2012 report, has clearly taken this message to heart".

The GIPB report examines the investment attraction activities of investment promotion agencies (IPAs), which refer to investment facilitation, including the ability to provide investors with detailed, accurate, timely and necessary information to successfully establish a business in the country of interest.

"As lead contractor for the World Bank's GIPB 2012 survey of Investment Promotion Agencies in 189 countries, OCO Global is pleased to endorse PRONicaragua as the world's top performer. PRONicaragua provides an example to IPAs across the world of best practice in investor facilitation," commented Joe Phillips, Managing Consultant of OCO Global.

Furthermore, General Alvaro Baltodano, Presidential Delegate for Investments, applauded the successful coordination between the government, private sector and workers, leading to worldwide recognitions such as the one granted by the GIPB report, stressing that this is "an achievement of Nicaraguans that demonstrates there is a national consensus on the importance of investments for the country, which generates jobs and stimulates the national economy."

In the 2009 edition of the study, PRONicaragua also obtained excellent results, being named the second best national agency in Latin America and eleventh in the world.

The 2012 results were presented by the World Bank on Friday April 20th during the third annual World Investment Forum in Doha, Qatar, a high-level, biennial, multi-stakeholder gathering that is designed to facilitate dialogue and action on the world's key emerging investment-related challenges.

PRONicaragua is the Nicaraguan Investment Promotion Agency, established in 2002. It is a non-profit, public-private institution whose mission is to generate economic growth and job creation in Nicaragua by attracting high-quality foreign direct investment. The agency provides complimentary support services to qualified investors seeking investment opportunities in our country. For further information, please contact us at (505) 2270-6400 or http://pronicaragua.org.

# # #