(Ecofin Agency) - The World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) is hosting on October 7-8 in Warsaw its 24th World Conference and on this occasion, the NGO is planning to renew its executive staff. Moussa Ismaïla Touré, Managing Director of Mali’s Investment Promotion Agency (API- Mali) applied for the sub-Saharan Africa representative position within this international institution, which brings together 126 economic promotion entities around the world.

Since 2015, when Mr. Touré became MD of API-Mali, the Malian agency has seen a huge improvement in its administrative and financial situation, as well as the resumption of investment and entrepreneurship promotion activities. Also, the Invest in Mali 2017 Forum organized under his leadership attracted more than 1,000 participants from 30 countries around the world and 37 billion FCFA in investment commitments were secured on the occasion. Moreover, since 2015, the volume of investments approved under the agency’s code and own resources has increased threefold.

With these good performances, API-Mali obtained a score of 4/5 in the World Bank’s assessment of the quality of investor support (80% satisfaction rate). “He (Moussa Ismaïla Touré, ed) is surely going to bring added value to our region being the representative of WAIPA in sub-Saharan Africa. That’s why I fully support his candidacy,” said Ivorian Esmel Emmanuel Essis, Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, in charge of Private Investment Promotion in Côte d'Ivoire, and former MD of the Ivorian Investment promotion center (CEPICI).

WAIPA was created in 1995 in Geneva to develop synergies between investment promotion agencies -IPAs (through networking, training and the exchange of best practices in investment promotion). It has a permanent secretariat in Istanbul, Turkey.