Information provision and technical assistance encompasses all measures relating
to the pre-investment phase. The primary activity is to disseminate information on
FDI opportunities and the investment climate as well as establishing contacts
through seminars, workshops, match-making and investment missions. Thereby the
link between potential investors in the home country and the investment
opportunity in the host country is created. As UNCTAD (2000b, p. 6) has noted,
when dealing with developing countries, this is an asset because “the initiatives
help to overcome market imperfections and structural deficiencies that often work
to the disadvantage of developing countries, especially when an economy’s
relatively small size, geographic distance or limited prior experience with foreign
investors tend to exclude it from customary lists of prospective FDI sites