Abstract
The chapter examines whether the investment promotion agencies (IPAs) of the V4 countries follow a similar approach when trying to attract FDI into their economies. After a brief overview of the relevant literature on the factors influencing the IPAs’ performance, a comparative analysis is provided about the V4 countries’ IPAs, focusing on the existing differences from an effectiveness point of view. The chapter shows that the countries established complex systems to meet the new regulations of the European Union on financial aid for the period 2014–2020, with momentous differences in financial incentive patterns. The design of investment promotion tools of the V4 countries seems to be similar in many aspects; however, several differences can be identified. Analysing the characteristics of the four IPAs, it can be stated that the Czech Republic comes closest to meeting the international best practices among the four countries.
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Notes
- 1.
At the time of the research the Hungarian IPA was called Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency (HITA), but in July 2014 the government created the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency (HIPA) as a successor to HITA.
- 2.
According to the Guidelines on Regional State Aid for 2014–2020 of European Commission (European Commission 2013), aid to the steel industry will not be considered to be compatible with rules of the internal market. It is the only exception in the V4 countries where a sector is considered to be in strategic focus, but is not (and cannot) be supported by grants.
- 3.
- 4.
Special Economic Zones in Poland are special territories which are uninhabited parts of the country where business activity may be conducted under preferential terms: in addition, free assistance in dealing with formalities is also offered. 14 SEZ can be found at the moment, with more than one hundred subzones (KPMG 2014).
- 5.
It must be underlined that the analysis is based on information available at the time of the research.
- 6.
At UNCTAD, the Division on Investment and Enterprise (DIAE) runs a programme called the Investment Facilitation Compact. Their experts provide regular practical advice on investment promotion-related topics. The World Bank Group also deals with the topic, the Global Investment Promotion Benchmarking project has been running for several years.
- 7.
A recent study carried out by ECORYS examined variables like the size of an IPA in terms of the number of employees, salary levels, or the share of staff with private sector experience. However, information like this is usually not readily available.
- 8.
This characterisation suits the agency’s recent other videos as well.
- 9.
The successor of HITA did not follow this concept.
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Tőrös, Á., Mészáros, Á., Dani, Á. (2017). Investment Promotion in the Visegrad Countries: A Comparative Analysis. In: Szent-Iványi, B. (eds) Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe. Studies in Economic Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40496-7_9
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