WAIPA Annual Report 2011

WAIPA Report of Activities 2011-2012
WAIPA World Investment
Conference 2011,
Geneva, Sep 5-6,
2011
powered homes of 1,000 people. The
gasification by-product, called “silica”,
is also traded. “This ecosystem creates
a 27% return on equity”, he pointed
out. “This is an investment of 50,000
per plant. There was a proposal to
scale these agro-energy projects up
to 5,000. 5,000 times 50,000 added
up to 250 million dollars in capital”
– he pointed out. These were – in
his view – examples of situations
that would be out of the traditional
FDI, but that would be economically
sustainable with little impact on
environment. This underscored the
noticeable trend known to IPAs,
according to which most FDI projects
(now being attracted) are smaller in
scale but, altogether, can make a
difference. With this final remark the
debate moved on to the inter-play of
both innovation and technology with
economic development.
The third panel discussion, titled
“The Long-Term View – Innovation,
Green Technology and Economic
Development” was moderated by
the FDI Editor, Courtney Fingar,
from the Financial Times group. Ms.
Fingar began setting the stage by
arguing that economic developers
are faced with the challenge of
leveraging energy efficiency and
green initiatives as stepping stones in
the path toward job creation, through
innovation spread across all sectors.
Denny Coleman, then Chairperson
of IEDC, backed that point stating
that in the US green initiatives and
new technologies are on front and
in the centre, at a time when the US
faces its longest recession since the
1930s. To support this statement,
the IEDC panellist explained that 14
million individuals remain unemployed
today, and that manufacturing and