Investment missions would take prospective investors to the cooperating countries for presentations on the investment environment and encourage contacts with local business people. Although the group might have a single designated unit for managers who respond to ads or who want further information, detailed information and personal selling has to come from the member countries themselves. Each must have a skilled investment promotion unit to follow up on leads generated by image-building and eventually to identify firms on its own to contact. Even groupings of African countries are unlikely to attract as much foreign investment as possible. They need cooperation from countries and multilateral institutions that can provide advice about creating an attractive investment climate.
Richer countries can also provide some help in reducing risk for private investors.
The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the World Bank's Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, and similar agencies cover risks of expropriation, inconvertibility of currencies, and civil disturbances. Risk can also be reduced if the governments of the investors' home countries allow losses in African investments to be written off, as incurred, against profits earned elsewhere, including at home. Visits by heads of state are covered in the home country press. Economic Perspectives USIA Electronic Journal, Vol. 4, No.