ABU DHABI – From the 16-20 October 2023, a high-level UNIDO delegation, led by Gunther Beger, Managing Director of the Directorate of SDG Innovation and Economic Transformation, joined UNCTAD’s 8th World Investment Forum (WIF). This edition of the Forum focused on global investment challenges faced by the world's developing countries amid today's global crises and underlined the critical importance of investments to meet the SDG Summit’s global call to action at the last United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) of September 2023.

UNIDO’s participation at the WIF was manifold. UNIDO hosted a stand in the Investment Village and portrayed the Organization’s critical work to inform interested delegates about ongoing projects and activities in the area of sustainable investments. Delegates took great interest in UNIDO’s digital Invest-in-ACP Platform, UNIDO’s support to Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks (IAIPs) and the Agrifood Systems Transformation Accelerator (ASTA). Much more than serving as an information stand, the booth led to dozens of promising queries from private sector representatives, global investors, investment promotion agencies, member states representatives and the civil society engaged in the field of investments.

Gunther Beger participated in the high-level Enterprise Ministerial Roundtable, where he presented UNIDO’s concrete solutions to mobilize more investments for developing countries under the UNIDO Director General’s “progress by innovation” motto.

UNIDO also organized two high-level side events in which the Managing Director participated as speaker and panelist, underscoring the urgent need to unlock more investments for ending hunger, climate action and transforming supply chains. The first session’s panel discussion focused on catalyzing investment in Africa’s value chains through industrial parks and featured esteemed experts from development finance institutions from the African Development Bank, Afreximbank and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa as well as the private sector. Launching UNIDO’s digital investment platform “Invest in ACP” for the Gulf region, the second session invited professionals from investment promotion agencies to evaluate its practicability in fostering more investments into the African Caribbean and Pacific region. The Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and the AIM Congress provided strong signals of support to ramp up investments from the Gulf region in ACP countries.

In addition to the sessions organized by UNIDO, members of the UNIDO delegation shared their insights as speakers in other side events, such as on the panel “Innovative Finance to Unlock Investment in Sustainable Agrifood Systems”, “Invest in Tomorrow: Abu Dhabi’s Economic Transition”, as well as the “COP28 Global Dialogue on Climate Finance and Investment”.

Beger held bilateral meetings with ILO’s Assistant Director General for the Jobs and Social Protection Cluster, Mia Seppo, with the Executive Director of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA), Ismail Ersahin and with other partners. In the meeting with Dawood Al Shezawi, President of the AIM Congress it was agreed to deepen the triangular cooperation between UNIDO, the UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotion Office in Bahrain and the AIM Congress.