Investopia Summit shapes features of future economy

Inayat-ur-Rahman, Gulf Today

As part of the World Government Summit 2022, the Investopia summit was inaugurated on Monday, gathering over 90 speakers and 1,000 participants from local, regional, and international government officials, institutional investors, industry experts, aiming at discussing ideas, opportunities, and future investments all over the world.

 Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy expressed, “Investopia aims to facilitate the global dialogue, to formulate innovative models and partnership schemes that will generate the future investment opportunities that will create a new global ecosystem and lay down the foundations for responsible and sustainable future economies. With Investopia we are setting a different tone and changing the global investment behaviour to not only focus on the economics but also the human, social and environmental aspects.”

Bin Touq stressed that the summit embodies the futuristic vision of the UAE, in light of global changes, constituting a main pillar in the country’s march toward building its future economy based on employing latest technologies in all pivotal sectors.

The summit saw wide participation of more than one thousand participants made up of decision-makers, investors, and innovators from the United Arab Emirates, and also globally. These included  Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade;  Noura Bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth;  Dr Ahmed Belhoul Al Falasi, UAE Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises; Mohammad Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi; Khaldoon Al Mubarak, CEO of Mubadala Group; Sheikh Fahim Bin Sultan Bin Khalid Al Qasimi, CEO of the Department of Government Relations in Sharjah; Larry Fink, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Blackrock, and Makhtar Diop, Managing Director at IFC.

The Investopia summit aims at enhancing international partnerships to advance the economic and investment sectors. The summit brings together investors, thinkers and businessmen, and constitutes a stimulating platform for achieving growth in new economies, and developing solutions to the challenges facing economies.

Through its focus on the key future economies, and exploring the opportunities presented by advances in technology across all industries, Investopia seeks to build the future economies for future generations.

The first session entitled “From Now to new: the global investment outlook 2025”, hosted Spirydon-Adonis Georgiadis, Minister of Development and Investment, Greece;  Rebeca Grynspan, Director General, UNCTAD; and Anthony Scaramucci, Founder and Managing Partner, SkyBridge Capital.

Rebeca Grynspan highlighted the importance of governments adopting comprehensive economic strategies that keep pace with challenges and investment requirements in the short and long term.  “The UAE is a very good example of this driven by a clear vision toward the future,” she said.

She painted a big picture of what’s required and possible for investments now and in the future, “You need to enhance the investment in infrastructure, in digital transformation, in climate change, and we need the private public partnerships to be able to do that.”

Noura Bint Mohammed Al Kaabi participated in the main session of Investopia entitled “Not a luxury: investing in the creative industries,” beside Alain Bejjani, CEO, Majid Al Futtaim, Elie Habib, Co-Founder and CTO, Anghami; Patrick Chalhoub, CEO, Chalhoub Group; Sophie Watts, Founder and Executive Chairperson, Metacurio. The session was moderated by Rachel Pether, Senior Adviser, SkyBridge.

Khaldoon Mubarak, CEO, Mubadala and Larry Fink, CEO, Blackrock participated in the “The long view: lessons from investment leaders” session moderated by John Defterios. The session highlighted the change in the global investment scene, in light of the rapid changes during the recent period.

“The UAE Investment Outlook: 50 Years Ahead” session hosted Mohammed Al Shorafa and Helal Al Marri, where they highlighted the importance of the initiatives and programmes of the UAE during the next 50 years.

The panels explored concepts such as the metaverse and the investment opportunities it presents, the necessity of leadership in climate change and investments to address our climate challenge, solutions agri-tech presents to address the supply chain challenges in our food supply and much more. The emphasis now is largely on emerging markets for investments and inclusion. These markets have huge potential for creating clear solutions for global challenges and driving emerging trends across industries.

Investopia has a wide network of local and global partners, including the global cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com, Deloitte Middle East, Accenture Middle East, BlackRock, one of the largest asset management companies in the world, and a number of partners from the private sector, along with the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, and the Sharjah Foreign Direct Investment Office (Invest in Sharjah).