The 2018 World Investment Forum (WIF) opened in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday, with a call for a focus on sustainable development and investment issues.
World Investment Forum harps on global investment
The forum is a high-level biennial conference organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) for addressing investment-related issues.
The five-day forum has drawn 6,000 participants, 12 heads of state and more than 50 CEOs of private companies. UNCTAD’s Secretary-general Mukhisa Kituyi stressed that sustainable development is needed to promote investment and trade.
“Concrete policies, strategies and solutions must be forged here across the wide spectrum of investment issues, international investment agreements, investment promotion and business facilitation, capital markets, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, the digital economy and accounting standards. We seek new solutions for countering the uncertainty,” said Kituyi.
“The more you invest in sustainability, the more return you are going to get on your money and the more good you’re going to make and more faster we’re going to implement the SDGs. And that’s where the solution lies to the many problems that we have today,” said Michael Møller, the director-general of the United Nations Office at Geneva.
Recently, global investment has been confronted by challenges ranging from new industrial revolutions, the digital economy, disruptions to multilateralism and multilateral cooperation.
and a lack of investment for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“The more you invest in sustainability, the more return you are going to get on your money and the more good you’re going to make and more faster we’re going to implement the SDGs. And that’s where the solution lies to the many problems that we have today,“said Michael Moller, Director-general, United Nations Office at Geneva:
ES NIPC & Legal Advisor NIPC at a Meeting on International Investment Agreements organized by International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Trade and Investment Advocacy Fund U.K on the sidelines of the World Investment Forum 2018 #WIF2018 #UNCTAD AsoRock pic.twitter.com/fo4XYx792w
— NIPC (nipcng) October 23, 2018
According to UNCTAD, the slowing-down of global investment can bring about a great challenge to achieving the SDGs.
Direct investment in the world in the first half of 2018 decreased by 41 percent, after a profound decrease in 2017 as well.