New Delhi, Sep 14 (PTI) Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) should not only serve information of the highest quality but also become custodians of trust in the investment process, a top government official said on Wednesday.

Secretary for the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Anurag Jain said that global foreign direct investment flows had returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, and today supply chains were being reconstructed in safer, more resilient ways.

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"I have no doubt, that together we can face and overcome these troubled times and help move the world to a prosperous, and most importantly, sustainable, future," he said, while virtually addressing World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) Investment Conference that is underway in Geneva.

Highlighting India's investment story, the secretary said that in spite of the pandemic, the country saw record FDI inflows each year.

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The role of the investment promotion agency has perhaps never been as critical as it is now, when the world has been going through a once-in-a-hundred-years energy and technology transformation, he added.

Countries that digitise effectively and invest in new and emerging technologies will receive greater volumes of foreign direct investment, and investment of a higher quality, is growing, he said.

Further, he called upon IPAs to think of every region in different countries through the lens of potential investment destinations.

"While a lot of the big investment opportunities are still centred on major cities, it is important to recognise that deeper digitisation and startups facilitate the fruits of equity to travel deeper and impact more lives in a country," Jain said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)