Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 1 May 2023: The 12th Annual Investment Meeting (AIM Global 2023), to be hosted for the first time in Abu Dhabi from May 8 to 10 with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) as lead sponsor, will feature several regional focus forums that will address the vital elements of successful direct investments as well as the challenges faced by the investment sector. These forums will be presented by a group of industry and investment promotion experts from different continents of the world.

AIM Global 2023, organized by AIM Foundation, is anchored on the theme “The Investment Paradigm Shift: Future Investment Opportunities to Foster Sustainable Economic Growth, Diversity and Prosperity,” 

The regional focus forum entitled “The Flow of Direct Investments to the Arab Countries of the MENA Region: Reality, Opportunities, & Challenges,” organized by the Union of Arab Chambers in cooperation with the League of Arab States and the Investment and Technology Promotion Office in Bahrain – UNIDO, aims to shed the light on the investment opportunities in the region, the challenges it currently faces, and how to overcome them by developing investment policies and carrying out appropriate economic reforms, especially for the countries that have gone through political crises that led to weakening investor confidence.

Over the past decade, the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) has made major reforms of investment policies to keep up with the developments in the global economy. Ongoing efforts are necessary for countries to achieve sustainability and ensure that the benefits of investments are spread throughout the region. This requires connecting local and foreign investments through the value-added chain at local, regional, and global levels, and can be facilitated by creating local investment policies that align with international investment laws and agreements that govern production both locally and internationally.

The UAE has estalished itslef as a leading hub for investment, trade, adn buisness. According to the World Investment Report 2022 issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UAE was ranked first in the Arab world and 19th globally for its ability to attract foreign direct investment inflows. As the catalyst for Abu Dhabi’s economic growth, ADDED is buidling on strong fundmentals to further improve  investment ecosytem, generate growth, accelerate innovation, and contribute to the prosperity of future generations.

The “The Flow of Direct Investments to the Arab Countries of the MENA Region: Reality, Opportunities, & Challenges” forum will cover four main themes – the reality of investment infrastructure in the Middle East and North Africa; the investments opportunities and challenges in the region; building strategies to attract FDI to the MENA region in the sectors of financial services, renewable energy, tech startups, ICT, and reconstruction plans; and opportunities and challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Speaking about the “ASEAN Regional Focus Forum,” Chairman of ASEAN Business Advisory Council Arsjad Rasjid said: “I believe that the Annual Investment Summit is a crucial platform for bringing together key stakeholders and decision-makers to explore new investment opportunities and address challenges in the ASEAN. Our aim is to promote the ASEAN centrality as the magnet of global growth. Under Indonesia's Chairmanship, we are committed to bring ASEAN into partnership globally and promote stronger investment to this region.” 

The “Regional Focus Forum for the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States,” meanwhile, will review the results of a joint survey conducted by the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies in cooperation with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in 2022, which covered 61 investment promotion agencies (IPA) in the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) region.

The empirical results shed light on the most pressing challenges faced by IPAs in ACP countries. Besides being burdened by a mandate overload and signs of budget shortcomings, ACP IPAs overwhelmingly articulated the need for technical assistance in investment targeting, monitoring and investment opportunity profiling. This need partly stems from the fact that the digitalization of most ACP IPAs is still in its infancy with only limited digitalisation capabilities and often no established digitalization strategies under implementation, although the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated digital transformation more generally.  

The forum program will run for three days and will also include additional regional forums, namely “Africa Regional Focus Forum,” and “Future of Carbon Markets,” “Latin America & The Caribbean.