AIM Congress, known as the Annual Investment Meeting is the largest conglomerate of corporate leaders, policy-makers, regional and international investors, and experts who provide strategies, and knowledge on attracting investment. Its focus for 2023 is on fostering and harnessing new potentials for global economic development. As World Investment Forum’s prestigious partner, AIM Congress held an extremely enlightening discussion wherein excellencies, ambassadors and experts from around the world came together to share their thoughts on the big paradigm shift in the investments landscape, the challenges faced by the countries and the business leaders and finding solutions to overcome it.
Opening the session, H.E. Dawood Al Shezawi, President of AIM Global Foundation said, “I take pride to be present in front of you all. Every year experts in the field of investment gather to share knowledge and strategies to attract investment in the Annual Investments Meeting now rebranded to Aim Congress. Committed to adding value to its members, AIM Congress runs all its initiatives on three impacts – Economic, Environment and Social. Without these the work that we do have no value.. We have also developed AIM Academy wherein we made programmes, shared experiences and knowledge. Our programmes are designed to look into different subjects, the main focus being FDI. We target entrepreneurs and preparing them for digital challenges. Help cities on how to go about investment. I wish success for this conference and thank you all the speakers for your time.”
H.E. Wamkele Mene, Secretary General, African Continental Free trade area, said, “Africa is facing investment challenges dur to absence of harmonised regime and dispute mechanism. This downturn has implications on Africa’s development. This projection of future potential for a competitive market is aimed to invite investors to look at Africa with a fresh view.”
H.E. Wamkele Mene, made an official announcement that the African Continental Free Trade area has signed an MOU with AIM Congress, in which this platform is required to enable investment facilitation and raising awareness of investment climate in Africa, educating dialogues about how can the countries’ political challenges be improved.
The session was then convened a panel discussion on Digital Financial Inclusion and its move towards Innovative, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy. The panel consisted of thought leaders from different backgrounds like Ali Al Balooshi, CEO, EcoX Group; Sherif Elmasry, CEO, Maverika; Vikash Sharma, Founder – Group CEO, IC1101 Inc; Takashi Nakamura, Director – NIFCO and Ubaydli Al Ubaydli, Chairman – Union of Arab ICT.
Digital technology is rapidly evolving and financial inclusion is one of the key pillars of the global poverty reduction agenda, which aims at developing transition economies. The panel highlighted the opportunities and the advanced transformation of digital finance, which has successfully improved access to finance for the poor, women, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and other excluded segments.
Commenting on this, Sherif Elmasry, CEO, Maverika, highlighted that at a strategic level, digital transformation is a key driver. 10 years ago, digital technology helped in reduction of entry barrier to expand and reach the underserved community. Whereas the advancement of biometric technology enabled access to people to secure transactions through the comfort of their home. These were the real innovations that technology brought in. To this Ali Al Balooshi, CEO, EcoX Group, said that the technological advancements not only benefit the businesses but also individuals especially the ones living in the underdeveloped areas or countries. Ubaydli Al Ubaydli, Chairman – Union of Arab ICT, who is also an advocate of women being part of businesses said, while looking for digital technology inclusions, my key priority also is to include women from various walks of life to become a marginal contributor in the financial community. Speaking about how fintech is shaping up the digital area, Vikash Sharma, Founder – Group CEO, IC1101 Inc said, Digital finance inclusion is only possible till the time the particular country’s banking and bureau system is tech enabled.
The session moved forward to a discussion by two distinguished guests, Toomas Allikas – Founder & CEO, Greenful, Estonia and Dr. Anas Bataw – Director of the centre of Excellence in smart construction, Heriot Watt University. Here they discussed ‘The Future of Cities’ – Thriving amid turbulence. Giving insights about his country’s progression, Mr. Toomas said that Innovation is not getting enough financing in Estonia but the direction is right which will enable its bright future. Following which Dr. Anas highlighted his thoughts about building a smart city wherein he said that there is a progress being seen but we are stuck amidst making sustainable development and we have not made any major changes in sustainable city. They concluded the discussion saying that not just Government, Industrial sector, Academic sector but also the citizens need to collaborate and bring about a change in making sustainability possible.
Another panel discussion was initiated which highlighted the challenges faced in the Supply chain sector. The panellists included: Isamu Koyama, CEO/Representative Director – Japan Innovation Park GIA; Daniil Algulyan, Deputy Chairman – VEB.RF; Sonya Janahi, Board Member Bahrain Chamber of Commerce – Deputy Board Member of ILO (Employers of Asia) – Founder & CEO, Maya La Chocolaterie & The Living Concepts; Sameer Sortur, Regional Director GCC – Founder Institute and Amb. Michael Aaron Oquaye, CEO – Ghana Free Zones Authority. Each of the experts spoke about the challenges in supply chain management that they experienced and solutions to overcome the challenges. Sonya Janahi, Board Member of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce said that there have been logistical concerns in getting raw materials and food security since 2020 and war situations in the world make it more challenging leading to increase prices of logistics. There are countries that can provide food security and we need to unite more than ever to overcome this challenge. Amb. Michael Aaron Oquaye, CEO – Ghana Free Zones Authority highlighted that if the businesses are not able to increase salaries to deal with inflation or market forces then Government will also not be able to provide any cushion resulting in primary sectors getting affected to the core.
The other panellists highlighted that supply chain sector is trying its best to remain ahead of time by making use of drones to deliver essentials to countries who are in need. They closed discussions with talking about changing legislations of the supply chain sector and applying AI and other augmented reality technologies to foster in it.
The event concluded with a short interview session with Ahmed Nasser Al Nowias, Founder & CEO, Annex Investment, UAE who spoke about the importance of Family office venture investments and how it is growing to become a monumental directive. He stated the significance of the second generation of the Family office and dealing with major concerns such as inflation, rising interest rates, and recessionary worries.