2023-10-24 08:48:51
While waiting for the 9th edition of the World Investment Forum which will take place in 2025, the 8th meeting has just ended, on October 20, with a strong call to public and private investors to play a central role in the overhaul of the global economy and to seize the new opportunities offered by the energy transition, the transformation of the agri-food and health sectors and the evolution of solutions for sustainable development.
The 8e edition of the World Investment Forum, held from October 16 to 20 in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, saw the participation of some 8,000 people, including government representatives, international organizations and political decision-makers. Took part in the demonstration near 700 CEOs and investors, sovereign funds, sustainable stock exchanges and key players in the capital markets.
The work of this biennial Forum focuses on themes particularly linked to investment in sustainable development, such as food security, sustainable energy, health infrastructure and the resilience of global supply chains. Participants focus on ways to ensure that sustainability principles remain the keystone and an essential factor in investment strategies and decisions, taking into account the public interest in contributing to the achievement of community sustainable development.
Organized under the theme “Investing in Sustainable Development” and especially in the context of a fragmented global economy, the Forum examined the profound impact on trade and investment, with foreign direct investment experiencing a continued slowdown, as data for the first half of 2023 showed.
A worrying slowdown
According to UNCTAD Deputy Secretary General, Pedro Manuel Moreno, “this slowdown is very worrying because less investment means less economic growth and fewer means to achieve sustainable development goals.”
According to UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2023, cascading crises such as the war in Ukraine, high food and energy prices and debt pressures have led to a decline 12% of foreign direct investment worldwide in 2022.
Foreign direct investment and COP28
To include the investment perspective in COP28 deliberations and finance a just transition, a call was made for the Forum’s investor conversations to be integrated into discussions at the next climate summit, as countries are preparing their new national climate action plans by 2025.
The Forum also unveiled a series of new investment policy instruments, including the identification of 50 model special economic zones for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the launch of a multi-stakeholder platform on the reform of international investment agreements investment and collaboration with the United Nations World Tourism Organization to establish guiding principles for investment in sustainable tourism.
Additionally, several strategic partnerships were announced during the forum. These include collaborations with the African Sovereign Investors Forum, regional partnerships for sustainability reporting in Asia, the Gulf region and Eurasia, and an agreement between the Stock Exchanges Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to launch a central sustainable development platform for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region.
1698222124
#8th #edition #World #Investment #Forum #Public #private #financing #overhaul #global #economy
