Chapter 02:
Digital technology in investment promotion
While the pandemic has caused struggles in different degrees across the investment promotion industry, it has also accelerated the adoption of digital technology. Internally and externally, investment promotion agencies are using technology to promote destinations, connect with investors, and drive efficiency in their organisations.
Regulations in some areas have become more flexible to allow for this change and modernisation, says Ahmad Numan, Group Director of Marketing and Corporate Communications with RAKEZ, in UAE. “One of the big changes is that regulations that might have been inflexible or outdated have been changed”. He cites the example of financial controls and regulations in the UAE that required some contracts to be signed in person. These have now been replaced with a more flexible approach that allows business to continue during the pandemic.
We can see three major trends in the adoption of technology by investment promotion agencies: using internal tech systems to promote better insight and decision-making, using outward-facing systems to engage with investors, and using social media to promote overall brand awareness.
2.1
The power of data Insights
Technologies such as customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence (BI) aren’t new. But during the pandemic, many IPAs extended the functionality of these systems to support remote working and networking, alongside newer technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), chatbots and machine learning (ML).
For example, Dubai FDI created a dedicated information and data portal that pulls together real-time information on current investment opportunities with related data on local sites and resources. “It’s an open data flow that provides analysis of what’s happening, where and when. It helps people to understand the stimulus information, and that means we can better engage with investors,” says Al Gergawi.
"Switzerland Global Enterprise introduced a digital platform to support core processes and streamline investor communication among the various Swiss regional EDOs and our global network," says Sirpa Tsimal, the agency’s Director of Investment Promotion. With the collected data, the platform helps Tsimal’s team spot trends in location decisions, giving greater transparency and increased collaboration.
We don’t need to travel to five countries to have five meetings, we could have five meetings with five countries in one day. That gave us the opportunity to use technology to build a virtual experience that helps investors to feel what it’s like to live and work in Bahrain.
2.2
Using technology to engage with investors
Technology has supported enormous improvements in efficiency around investor relations, comments Nabil Moutran, Chief Marketing Officer with Bahrain EDB. “We don’t need to travel to five countries to have five meetings, we could have five meetings with five countries in one day. That gave us the opportunity to use technology to build a virtual experience that helps investors to feel what it’s like to live and work in Bahrain,” says Moutran.
With global travel restrictions impacting their traditional business engagement model, IDA Ireland took a fresh approach to engaging virtually with companies looking at Ireland as an investment location. “We adapted early by developing a virtual engagement platform to position Ireland Inc to potential investors. This effectively has allowed us to readily showcase Dublin & the Regions of Ireland to our global target FDI audience, facilitating introductions to our existing client base, bringing in our key stakeholders, and creating the opportunity to engage virtually with us. From an IDA Ireland perspective, it has allowed us to continue to position the attractiveness of the Value Proposition of Ireland for FDI,” says Anne-Marie Tierney-Le Roux, Head of Regional Development, IDA Ireland.
We adapted early by developing a virtual engagement platform to position Ireland Inc to potential investors. This effectively has allowed us to readily showcase Dublin & the Regions of Ireland to our global target FDI audience, facilitating introductions to our existing client base, bringing in our key stakeholders, and creating the opportunity to engage virtually with us.
Dubai CommerCity also invested in creating a virtual experience for investors “The pandemic has given us an opportunity to explore the potential of digital technologies and one of the many tech adaptations we carried out was the development of a guided virtual tour of our facilities to give the investors a personalised feeling of being able to visit," says Anisa Muhammed Ali. In addition to the virtual tour, they tweaked many areas to accommodate and acknowledge the digital presence of potential investors to ensure their business expansion in Dubai was not stalled because of the pandemic.
With travel off the cards for now, Invest Durban have been testing a new project collaboration platform created by a local Tech company called Immedia. The company has created a platform for community collaboration, engagement, information and mobilisation, that has been widely used in local radio stations and other Community groups. Now, they are further developing the platform as a digital ecosystem for investors and stakeholders in investment advisory, facilitation, and financing. “Everyone is to be aggregated on this platform and can engage with one another. Each person has visibility and line of sight of only the projects they’re involved in. It has a fantastic back-end for admin plus M&E, where you can see who’s doing what, with how much volume, where and when,” says Curtis.
In Hong Kong, the team is using lead-generation tools to reach out to potential clients and keep existing clients ‘warm’ until they can progress with projects. This is important because, until travel is truly possible, closing an investment deal is hard. “Companies are chomping at the bit but until they can identify premises, recruit people and so on, it’s quite hard,” says Stephen Phillips, Director General of Invest Hong Kong.
2.3
Brand building on social media
Social media has become a key marketing channel for investment promotion in an era when we can’t simply invite someone to visit a site in person. Social media allows IPAs to segment and target their communication with absolute precision.
“We have adapted and we’re using the social networks more than before, our promotion has accelerated, and it means we’re able to reach strategic decision makers much faster, because we can segment by role, geography and industry,” says Trini Bofarull Masip, FDI Director at Catalonia Trade and Investment. “The roadshows have effectively been replaced with digital platforms, search engine optimisation and search engine marketing.”