Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Technology Transfer

Introduction

This workshop focuses on a key question – what matters to investors? Using the main themes arising from this question the presentation will develop a set of guiding principles for the establishment of good practices that any Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) needs to adopt. These range from planning stages through to self-evaluation and the inter-connections between the IPA and other key Government agencies and Departments. The workshop is primarily practice based but there is a significant amount of theoretical concepts which lie behind this. The workshop will provide the fundamentals and better understanding of the concept and practice of technology transfer with several examples from developing countries. Several examples and reasons for DCs poor progress with technology transfer will be discussed as well as examples from the UK Technology Strategy Board; Bridging the divide project – University of California, Berkeley, USA; India Biotechnology and Africa.

Objectives

Recent global developments in FDI
Barriers to FDI and domestic investment
Evaluating the host economy environment for FDI
IPA’s and Good Investment Promotion Practice
Demonstrate understanding of the determinants of FDI & criteria motivating investors in a specific location.
Identify the policies most conducive to FDI and evaluate the investment environment of a given country.
Maximise impact of Investment Promotion Agency
Next steps – developing a modern IPA for Bahrain
Technology transfer
Technology diffusion
Technical change and productivity gap
TT key success factors
Transfer models
Transfer linkages

Program Structure

Investment Promotion: Creating a Good Practice Environment
Technology Transfer: Concepts and Practice

Benefit for Participants

It is a great opportunity for participants to gain knowledge on FDI and technology transfer.
Clear understanding of FDI and technology transfer concepts and trends.
Understanding of the role and limits of IPA’s.
Active participation in theoretical and policy debate.
Providing training and educational opportunities for participants.
Offering networking opportunities for participants and businesses.
Meeting with professional international keynote speakers.
Meeting with professionals who are considering changing their careers.
Motivating participants to armaments science.

Benefits for Employers

Enhance relationship with different organization.
Meeting with participants.
Raising institutional image, profile, awareness, and market exposure for the future intakes.
Post event publicity through social media marketing, bulletins and word of mouth.
The opportunity for employers to showcase their role in community service.