AIM to focus on sustainable innovation

The Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2022, which opens today as a converging point for thousands of participants, including thought leaders and experts from across the globe, will witness global speakers focussing on investments in sustainable innovation.

The three-day event, running till March 31 at the Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo 2020 Dubai, comes at a time when the global economy is undergoing a massive transition driven by innovation and technology.

New technologies with economic strengthening policies are being adopted across the globe to establish a neo-future. In view of the above and looking at the prospect of re-engineering the global economy, day 1 of AIM will bring together leaders, investors, policymakers, international organizations and academics for this high-level gathering, organisers said.

Organised by the UAE Ministry of Economy, the day 1 of AIM 2022 will witness in-depth conversations on the key pillars of the meeting including FDI & FPI, Start-ups, Future Cities, SMEs, and the 50 Project Initiative.

Discussions on FDI & FPI pillar will be centred on Sustainable Investing – that will explore the best approach in attracting green FDI.

These discussions will play a key role in the UAE’s move to step up FDI flow as the second largest Arab economy expects to catapult itself into a higher trajectory of growth to realise its ambitious goal of more than doubling the size of its economy to Dh3 trillion by 2030 from Dh1.4 trillion.

The discussions at the AIM will be taking place against the backdrop of increasing FDIs globally.

The FDI session will provide insights and a 360-degree perspective to develop a solid framework to outline how countries can make their green agenda clear to attract sustainable investments. This session will also focus on building the educational system to support human capital growth, identifying the right mix of impact and return, global FDI trends, ESG investment discussion - entering the impact investment space and more, AIM 2022 organisers said.

“Impact investment bridges philanthropy and business, providing the capital needed to address social-environmental challenges. In 2020, the issuance of sustainability reached a record $554.3 billion, according to data from Refinitiv. Increasing interventions of governments and ESG-conscious corporates are seen with the regulation of capital markets, setting standardised indicators and benchmarks, and integrating mainstreaming ESG in investment strategies. In this session, AIM aims to facilitate how impact investments favour both reputation and returns, which is certainly going to help businesses progress and develop,” organisers said in a statement.

The Start-up pillar will bring to stage some key achievements and milestones of entrepreneurs who took the plunge to being their own bosses. This will be followed by a Pitch competition, where global start-ups showcase their ventures.

Future Cities will oversee discussions on the neural smart city model and how we should think about smart cities. It will emphasise on helping investors navigate the complexity, challenges and opportunities around smart cities in the future. This session will also highlight the importance of investing in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital for resiliency, green and blue infrastructure, and investing in Africa’s smart cities to drive economic transformation.

The SME pillar, led by a high-profile panel of ministers, investors and key executives from varied countries, will shed light on SMEs’ sustainability and innovation, building an everlasting SME brand, market access, and more.

The 50 Project initiative pillar will focus on accelerating the UAE’s long-term development and economic initiative, attracting and retaining international skilled workers with new visas, building the educational system to support human capital growth, AI and machine learning for government officials.

All discussions will be spearheaded by global experts, who will share their insights and analysis.

— issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com