Turning Investment Envy into Investment Attraction
LONDON, ON – June 20, 2016 – Canada is seriously lagging behind the United States and Mexico in the competition to attract foreign direct investment. While Canada has a great value proposition, a lot of work needs to be done to catch up with best-practice jurisdictions in attracting firms. A new research paper Investment Attraction: Learning from “Best Practice” Jurisdictions by the Ivey Business School’s David Moloney and Sandra Octaviani looks at how these best-practice jurisdictions approach investment attraction and develops some important lessons for Canada.
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“Canada’s approach to FDI attraction today falls well short of ensuring that reliable, timely and tailored information on key investment decision parameters is both widely available and communicated to targeted decision-makers as part of coordinated, ongoing strategic engagements, and that organized, end-to-end assistance is proactively provided throughout prospective investors’ processes of due diligence, approvals and applications,” said David Moloney, Ivey’s Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management.
Moloney and Octaviani examined investment attraction stars including Mexico, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States and Utah to find the roots of their success. Their research found many of the key building blocks needed to attain best-in-class performance by the Governments of Canada and Ontario already exist but many shortcomings still need to be overcome, leading to three key recommendations:
1) Canada and individual provinces need explicit, joint strategies that identify areas of opportunity and are tailored to target firms
2) Single window concierge services should be provided by the provinces to coordinate actions of both federal and municipal actors when engaging on a given project
3) Engagement needs to be led from the top – Prime Minister and Premiers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers – with follow-up from technical experts with a deep understanding of the firm’s business.
The study by Moloney and Octaviani is the final study of six in the Lawrence Centre’s Attracting Global Mandates series.
Links to papers:
- Attracting Global Mandates: Summary and Recommendations by Paul Boothe
- FDI by the Numbers by David Moloney and Sandra Octaviani
- Core Manufacturing: Lessons from Four Global Giants in Canada by Paul Boothe and Jean-Louis Schaan
- FDI by the Numbers by David Moloney and Sandra Octaviani
- Food and Industrial Biotechnology by David Sparling and Erin Cheney
- Investment Attraction: Learning from “Best Practice” Jurisdictions by David Moloney and Sandra Octaviani
Media Contact:
Ivan Langrish, Senior Manager, Media Strategy
Ivey Business School, Western University
ilangrish@ivey.ca
416-203-0664
About the Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management
The Lawrence National Centre for Policy and Management bridges business strategy and government policy to contribute to Canada’s global competitiveness. The Centre educates future business leaders in public policy and government leaders in business strategy and conducts leading-edge research on major issues that involve business-government coordination. www.ivey.uwo.ca/lawrencecentre
About the Ivey Business School, Western University
The Ivey Business School (www.ivey.ca) at Western University is Canada’s leading provider of relevant, innovative and comprehensive business education. Drawing on extensive research and business experience, Ivey faculty provide the best classroom experience, equipping graduates with the skills and capabilities they need to tackle the leadership challenges in today’s complex business world. Ivey offers world-renowned undergraduate and graduate degree programs as well as Executive Education at campuses in London (Ontario), Toronto and Hong Kong.
