Testimonials
Written testimonials and video interviews:
President, European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA)
Well we are very motivated, again, to be part of the IME Europe conference because we meet a lot of different regions around here. We hear a lot of what's happening in those regions, so we get a clear view on how we can help those regions of course. Furthermore, it's also important to tell our story on what has to be done in Europe because we have very big reports and nowadays it's very important to do the right actions. And it's not only to do the actions in your own region but do it together. Because if you want to have a good place at the table, we have to do that as Europe and not as each individual region, but you have to find each other and have to cooperate with each other in that way. So that's why we are very motivated to be part of this event.
IFC Country Manager for Germany, the Nordics and Switzerland
Actually, there were much more companies needed to invest in emerging markets to further develop the emerging markets and create jobs there. So we highly welcome companies to be active in emerging markets and our role then is to support them. So it's clearly, therefore very pleased to have an opportunity to be here to explain who we are and for companies basically to reach out to IFC or to other development banks and to say, these are our plans can you support us by means of finance or by means of advice.
Chairman, Verimpact
One of the reasons why I was very happy to be at the IME this year is that we wanted to pass the message that many companies are focusing a lot of their effort in compliance. What does this mean? They collect data and they produce reports for sustainability, for sustainability impact and so on. But this is a missed opportunity because if they collect the data, they don't use it in order to do two things. One is to make better decisions so they can make decisions for what will protect them from the non-financial risks, and second, where the most efficient investment in such issues will be done. What we have tried to do through their impact is to make sure that we provide the tools through artificial intelligence, because now we have the tools to do it, to allow them to use the analytics that we can provide for their data to make better decisions, to protect their operation from those non-financial risks, and ultimately to be leaders that are needed in this region to make things happen. Because if you want to attract foreign direct investment, you need to be sure that you are fulfilling those non-financial risks, security, let's say levels for investors, for insurance companies and so on. And also to be able to use the dashboard of all this information that is giving you to make your decisions for more efficient ways to invest in that.
Founder, Myler Mountain Resort, Armenia
I would share with participants, to encourage them to visit Armenia to see the destination on their own, to fall in love and then invest in Myler.
General Director, Paris Île-de-France Capitale Économique
We are living in a digital world, but we need physical meetings because in an uncertain time, the most valuable currency is confidence and reliability. And such meetings, as here in Frankfurt, is really precious so that we can meet the people and that we can understand what we need from each other and that we can build strong cooperation.
Assistant City Manager, City of Austin, Texas, USA
Yeah, another great question. I think it's about connecting the dots globally, internationally, so that in Austin we can attract more foreign investment, but also show other cities in the United States in particular, what they can do to attract international investment. So I think that's really part of the core of why it's important.
Office for Investment Support, Business Settlement Projects and Cluster Management, City of Mainz, Germany
Well, this is obviously our expectation. So we are participating this year for the first time and maybe next year when we are coming back so we can talk again and we hope that some success has established after this conference.
Project Manager, Invest Madeira, Regional Government of Madeira, Portugal
One of the most attractive things that we came here to IME to present is really the tax regime and all of our facilities. We do have a strategic location on the Atlantic, so we are close to Africa, we are close to Americas. We are a gateway, a perfect gateway to Europe. So beyond this, the tax regime that general corporate, we have 14%, and next year we are aiming to 13.3%. We do have the International Business Centre of Madera, that's a certified European centre with a low tax of 5%, and that's really a good opportunity for everyone.
Senior Advisor for International Cooperation at Chamber of Economy of Montenegro.
This is our very first participation in the Investment Management Exhibition. Montenegro will present by two institution, Chamber of Economy of Montenegro, and the Montenegro Investment Agency. We are very proud to be here to show our potential opportunities and to showcasing our projects. I would like to thank you to the organiser for such outstanding event who brought us all here to share our projects and opportunity as a key platform for connection.
Head of Division - Healthcare, Industry, Infrastructure, Berlin Partner for Business and Technology, Germany
Sustainable development is an important goal for us and I think this is the right platform for economic development companies like us to come together and really go into discussion. So, which could be the role of which partner, who could support his own ecosystem. I think there's a lot to do that we can do together, and I think this is the right platform.
Head of Economic Development Office, City of Dresden, Germany
Well, as every year it's a chance to present Dresden to provide some information about the city to an international audience. And the idea behind is of course, to attract interest and to attract investors.
Managing Director of German - Kosovo Economic Chamber
Well, the countries of the Western Balkans are all small, and in order to make an impact and to have a bigger opportunity is if they combine forces. If they join together in forms of clusters to produce and export goods or services for German or other international companies and organisations like IME they help in forging the context in bringing these relationships together in order to identify the future potential.
Director Steinbeis Enterprises in Stuttgart (DE), Baku (AZ), Bucharest (RO), Uzhhorod (UA) and Vienna (AT)
So such a platform like IME is an excellent place to meet. I'm here for several years already and frequently happy to be here because exactly here we meet people in one room for one day and talk about what could be done together and who is doing what and why. So we can learn from each other. There are a lot of agencies, a lot of regions, but also business people and investors involved. And that's a beginning. It's only beginning now and today and tomorrow we have to work on all this. But the beginning is done here in the excellent way by IME.
Senior Project Director at the Investment and Finance Office of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye.
Well, we see that IME is giving a good platform for us to meet with our existing investors, but also to meet new investors, which would be our priority. We met here with some potential multipliers that we are planning to organise new events together, new promotional activities. And even with some consulting companies, we noticed that we can reach with their support to their clients who are searching for a new investment location. And together with them, we believe that we can make Turkey more and more attractive investment destination. But we believe with this energy, not only Turkey, but also our region can become the new investment destination in the coming future.
Mayor, City of Nis
I think this conference is a good place to meet other people, to meet other nations. The fact that you have here 52 other people from other countries, some of them are creditors, some of them are investors, and some of them are representatives of big corporations that wants to find new places for new factories and new industry that they want to build. This is the right place for this kind of action, and we didn't want to miss this opportunity to show our City of Nis to the rest of the world and the whole Serbia.
Head of Foreign Direct Investment, Business Iceland
We like attending a well organised event where we know we can meet key industry players, investors, and also other investment promotion agency because it's always a learning curve as well. You learn through dialogue and you try to do better understanding what others are doing, et cetera, and then generally having as much outreach as you possibly can.
Professor, ESSCA School of Management, France
I think events like this and organisations like this have a lot of convening power. They can bring lots of different actors together to share knowledge, to share tacit knowledge, so experiential knowledge about what's happened, what's happened, well, what's happened not so well, so that we can learn from each other going forward.
Senior Investment Advisor at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change Germany
It’s absolutely crucial for our client governments to be connected to FDI leaders globally. Those might be the various companies, but also consultants connecting FDI in search for better and new locations, which makes it essential for the TBI Institute to be participating in events like these.
Cardinals GmbH, Germany
Oh yes, absolutely! Because every year politics change globally and new countries emerge as investible countries and platforms like this actually let you know what are the opportunities, what's the politics and how open are they to new investments, especially countries like you've seen Armenia presents today, you've got Montenegro that's potentially in line to join the EU. These are great investment destinations where investors will actually say, okay, this is potentially a place for us to go in early, deploy the capital, support the infrastructure building, and then be a part of their growth story. So events like this definitely puts us in face-to-face with right decision makers and right investment agencies to be in front of them and also to know what they have to offer and if it matches our goals and strategies.
Video Interviews
