Asia Policy Research Company Limited (APR) provides innovative policy research and consulting services to investment promotion agencies (IPAs) across Asia. We work closely with governments throughout the region and with major international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Bank, and the United Nations to mobilize resources and implement projects to enhance the capacity of investment promotion agencies and their officials to target and attract foreign investment.

In the area of investment promotion consulting, we provide a range of services to enhance the investment promotion activities of relevant agencies, including:

We have worked extensively in the area of investment promotion in South and East Asia, with country work in: Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Viet Nam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, China, Mongolia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Russia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan. Our project portfolio includes:

Pakistan Board of Investment: Team member of a major restructuring project for Pakistan’s Board of Investment. The task involved the preparation of comprehensive image building and investment promotion strategies for Pakistan, as well as the development of an innovative set of promotion materials and a revamped investment promotion web site. These materials included a series of detailed sector investment profiles. Designed the structure and produced the content of the Pakistan Board of Investment’s web site, which was awarded a top five position in the global rankings.

Strengthening the Investment Climate: A "Blue Book" on Best Practices: Project focusing on concrete and measurable improvements for the governments of Lao PDR and Cambodia in achieving best-practices in three broad areas: (1) regulatory framework for investment and impediments to investment; (2) investment promotion strategy; and (3) institutional development for investment-related agencies (organizational and process issues). The “Blue Book" intended to guide the two countries in the process of improving their investment climate and monitoring progress in dealing with a range of investment-impediment related issues and public-private sector dialogue. The project’s activities included extensive legal and regulatory reviews of the investment frameworks, developing and implementing survey questionnaires for foreign investors in the two countries, in-country workshops for government and private sector representatives, and development of concise action plans with practical recommendations and key performance indicators.

Indochina Investment Project: Prepared a comprehensive training course on Investment Promotion, Attraction and Facilitation for Cambodia, the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Viet Nam. Six training workshops for national and local investment officials were held in the three countries, covering the following topics: global investment trends, site selection, image building and media relations, investment promotion materials, investment promotion techniques, investor targeting strategy, investor facilitation and after-care services, and monitoring and evaluation. All training materials were prepared in English and the local languages to facilitate capacity building.

Comparative Assessment of Post-Economic Crisis Investment Attraction Potential in Asia: Benchmarking study in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, focusing on electronics firms and shared services/call centers. The project’s objectives were to conduct a competitive analysis of the six countries’ investment markets and provide recommendations to the investment promotion agencies of the six countries on how to increase investment from multinational companies in these industries. The outputs of the project included investment set up and operational cost comparisons for those industries in the six countries.

Backward Linkages Development: APR principals were involved in two projects in Thailand to develop: (1) the concept paper and initial framework for a backward linkage program for the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), which eventually became the highly-regarded BOI Unit for Industrial Linkage Development (BUILD) in the early 1990s; and (2) a national supplier development program, prepared for the Thai BOI Subcommittee on Supporting Industry in April 1994, and implemented by the BOI and Thailand’s Ministry of Industry.

ASEAN Investment Incentives: The project entailed extensive surveys of the investment regimes in all ASEAN economies and the preparation of a policy paper entitled: Investment Implications and Destructive Competition in ASEAN: Implications for Harmonization and Cooperation. The paper directly supported the efforts of ASEAN in improving the investment climate in the region.

Thailand Board of Investment: Provided a wide range of consulting assistance to the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) on establishing a joint-venture match-making service, research activities (sector investment opportunity profiles), investment promotion material preparation, public relations and image building, investment promotion missions, and investment promotion strategies. The project extended over a 12-year period during which time the Thailand BOI was recognized as one of the world’s leading investment promotion agencies.