Dear Colleagues,
It is my pleasure to share with you our most recent Issues
Note on "Taking Stock of IIA Reform".
There is a pressing need for systematic reform of the international investment
agreements (IIAs) regime to bring it in line with today's sustainable development
imperative. Today, the question is not whether or not to reform, but about
the what, how and the extent of such reform.
This IIA Issues Note takes stock of IIA reform efforts at the national,
bilateral, regional and multilateral levels. The Note reviews experiences
with the policy options presented in UNCTAD’s
Roadmap for IIA Reform (as launched in the World
Investment Report). It discusses the emergence of new generation investment
policies, as outlined in UNCTAD's
Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development.
The preliminary stocktaking shows that efforts towards a more sustainable-development-friendly
IIA regime are being undertaken at all levels of governance:
· At the national level, at least 110 countries have
reviewed their national and/or international investment policies. Many
of those reviews resulted in the development of a new IIA model that is
in line with new generation investment policymaking.
· At the bilateral level, there is a clear shift in
drafting practice. Recently signed IIAs contain a number of policy options
for balancing the host governments' right to regulate with investment protection.
· At the regional level, megaregionals or regional
IIA models include reform-oriented policy options. Some inputs into megaregional
negotiations break new ground with respect to IIA and investment dispute
settlement reform.
· At the multilateral level, a number of forums touch
upon issues related to IIA reform (e.g. transparency in ISDS, business
and human rights, or financing for development). UNCTAD's
World Investment Forum, its Trade and Development
Board and Investment Commission provide a global platform for engaging
policymakers and the investment and development community at large.
IIA reform is a formidable challenge. Significant progress has been made,
but much remains to be done. Comprehensive reform requires a two-pronged
approach: modernizing existing treaties and treaty models and formulating
new ones. Only a common approach will deliver an IIA regime, in which stability,
clarity and predictability help achieve the objectives of all stakeholders:
effectively harnessing international investment relations for the pursuit
of sustainable development.
UNCTAD has been advocating for IIA reform since 2010. Based on UNCTAD’s
long-standing experience with its Work Programme on IIAs, UNCTAD's World
Investment Report series 2010-2015 highlighted
a myriad of challenges and options for reforming various aspects of the
IIA regime. UNCTAD's mandate to continue this endeavor was recently
confirmed in the Addis
Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) of the Third United
Nations Financing for Development Conference, July 2015. UNCTAD stands
ready to continue providing the investment and development community with
the necessary backstopping in this regard.
The IIA Issues Note will serve as input into the deliberations at the forthcoming
UNCTAD Expert Meeting on IIA Reform, scheduled
for 16 March 2016 in Geneva, Switzerland (for more information write to
[log in to unmask]).
The meeting will allow the investment and development community to improve
its knowledge of IIA reform activities around the globe, share experiences
of stakeholders' approaches to IIA reform, identify lessons learned, and
chart the way forward towards the IIA Conference at the
2016 World Investment Forum, scheduled for July 2016 in Nairobi, Kenya.
I look forward to welcoming you on 16 March!
James Zhan
Director, Investment and Enterprise
Team Leader, World Investment Report
UNCTAD
Palais des Nations, Geneva
Tel: +41 22
917 5797
www.unctad.org/diae
www.unctad.org/wir
(World Investment Reports)
http://unctad-worldinvestmentforum.org/
