Webinar Recap: The Resiliency and Growth Playbook

Current landscape

FDI is going through a complex year. According to the latest World Investment Report, global FDI fell by 11% to $1.5 trillion in 2024, marking the second consecutive annual decline. This drop reflects rising trade tensions, geopolitical fragmentation and continued economic volatility.

FT Locations forecasts a decline of global FDI project numbers by 4% in 2025 in an optimistic scenario, and by as much as 8.5% in a pessimistic scenario if conditions worsen.

Behind the slowdown, a pertinent story is unfolding: capital is concentrating in fewer, higher-value projects across emerging sectors like advanced manufacturing as changing demographics are shaping industries of the future, digital infrastructure to support technology developments, and clean technologies driving the energy transition.

The message for investment promotion agencies is clear - in a world of constrained growth, resilience is a new competitive edge. Agencies that thrive will be those that focus with precision, redefine their success metrics and act as true strategic partners between investors and government.

This was the central theme of our recent webinar: The Resiliency and Growth Playbook: Exploring lessons from the frontline of investment attraction, where senior experts from Invest Qatar, Invest Lithuania and the West Midlands Growth Company shared practical lessons on how their agencies are adapting to the changing investment landscape.

Focus with precision

Across our panel, consensus emerged that the next wave of FDI will favour resilient, high-value sectors aligned with supply chain realignment and decarbonisation. Data from fDi Markets shows that project growth in areas such as data centres, the electric vehicle supply chain and clean technologies has consistently outpaced more traditional sectors in recent years.

Each of these sectors combines long-term demand fundamentals with high multiplier effects in quality job creation, innovation capacity, and export competitiveness. Rugile Skvarnaviciute explained how Invest Lithuania has a three-pronged approach to manage risk and capture opportunities in this shifting landscape:

• Dynamic portfolio management to manage short-term investment prospects with long-term strategic opportunities;
• Investment environment development to strengthen the local ecosystem through infrastructure talent, investment facilitation and policy reform; and
• Mutual value creation to ensure projects deliver measurable benefits to both investors and the national economy

This integrated model enables the agency to pivot rapidly as global priorities evolve, aligning promotion activities and policy focus with Lithuania’s broader economic strategy and maintaining resilience in a volatile investment environment.

Redefine success

Traditional success metrics like total projects, direct job creation, and size of projects measure activity, not necessarily the strategic value creation for a host economy. In addition, we are seeing that IPA mandates have expanded significantly over the last 5-10 years. Initial published findings from the most recent mapping of investment promotion agencies in OECD countries shows that while core mandates remain, agencies are now tasked with wider objectives including regional development, innovation promotion, talent attraction and more.

This evolution requires a new lens to view performance through. IPAs must now evaluate success by the quality and impact of investment, not just quantity. Counting projects provides a snapshot of effort, but resilience depends on whether those investments strengthen the host economy’s long-term competitiveness. Redefining success means embedding metrics such as productivity gains, technology transfer, R&D intensity, export diversification, sustainability outcomes, reinvestment rates, and talent development into core key performance indicators.

Jon Baty of the West Midlands Growth Company noted that the region his agency is conducting a strategic review to align its objectives and success measures with emerging opportunities. As he explained, “what we target must be reflected in how we measure success and must be fit-for-purpose”. These new value-creation indicators are essential to ensure that strategy, operations, and stakeholder engagement all drive toward a single outcome - transformational, high-impact projects that boost long-term competitiveness.

Act as a strategic partner, not just a messenger

The most resilient IPAs operate as system integrators, not intermediaries passing messages between investors and ministries. True investment facilitation means tackling the bottlenecks that investors face across set-up and operational issues including land access, utilities, permitting, and regulation.

Gokhan Celik highlighted how Invest Qatar has embedded policy advocacy into its core functions, helping expand permitted business activities and streamline company setup processes. The agency’s new digital tools and growing network of global representative offices have further strengthened its ability to connect investors with opportunities. Initiatives such as the Qatar Business Councils Forum further position Invest Qatar as a strategic link between business and government.

Acting as a true partner means embedding facilitation and advocacy at the core of an IPA’s mandate, backed by close coordination between promotion and policy teams. Effective advocacy hinges on the agency’s ability to champion both investor needs and national development goals — bridging the public-private divide in ways that deliver value to both sides. When investor feedback directly informs reform agendas, the IPA becomes not just a participant in economic transformation, but a driver of it.

A new definition of resilience

Resilience in investment promotion is no longer just about weathering shocks - it’s about anticipating structural shifts, reallocating resources strategically, and securing early positions in emerging value chains. This demands a more integrated approach: combining strategic sector targeting, long-term value creation, and developing deep investor partnerships into a unified operating model.

The global FDI outlook will remain uneven. But IPAs that use data to target high-impact sectors, measure outcomes through long-term value, and engage investors as agents of reform won’t just endure the next disruption, they’ll help shape the recovery that follows.

Watch the webinar on demand: EMEA and Asia | The Americas

Further reading

World Investment Report, 2025

OECD, Shifting gears in uncertain times

World Bank Group. Investment Promotion Agency Advocacy for Investment Climate Reform

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