AIM Congress 2025 highlights latest trends in FDI and Global Trade

ABU DHABI: The AIM Congress will spotlight the latest trends in foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade, including associated challenges and opportunities.

Key topics will cover regulatory developments, the impact of geopolitical tensions, and emerging market dynamics.

The aim is to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the factors shaping the future of global investment and to develop actionable strategies to harness the potential of FDI and global trade for economic growth and attracting further investments.

FDI and Global Trade are major portfolios of AIM Congress 2025, with an integrative relationship between them. International trade facilitates the flow of foreign direct investment by enabling countries to expand their markets, increase production and sales, benefit from enhanced capital flows, technology transfer, job creation, and knowledge dissemination.

The agenda for the FDI and Global Trade portfolios includes a variety of activities such as exhibitions, panel discussions, keynote speeches, workshops, bilateral meetings, and awards. These activities aim to enhance engagement with key industry players, policymakers, potential business partners, and investors, fostering collaborative partnerships and discovering new strategies and techniques to shape the future of global investments.

The FDI portfolio, themed ‘Navigating the Future of FDI: Overcoming Challenges, Seizing New Global Opportunities’, will address key issues and updates, including economic growth, increased sustainable investment, market expansion, and diversification of investment partners.

According to the UNCTAD World Investment Report, global FDI flows declined by 2 percent in 2023, reaching $1.3 trillion. The most significant drop occurred in developing countries, where FDI decreased by 7 percent, mainly due to challenging financing conditions and geopolitical risks. International project financing, crucial for infrastructure development, fell by 26 percent, affecting investments in critical sectors.

In Latin America, FDI flows declined slightly by 1 percent, though sectors such as commodities and renewable energy saw strong investment. In Africa, FDI dropped by 3 percent in 2023, but green energy and infrastructure investments continue to offer promising opportunities.

Emerging markets, particularly in Southeast Asia, continue to attract significant FDI in manufacturing and technological innovation. For example, Vietnam saw a 38.6 percent increase in FDI in early 2024, indicating robust growth in these sectors.

International trade relies on complex supply chains, from raw material sourcing to manufacturing and distributing products to consumers worldwide. Despite economic challenges, global trade has shown remarkable resilience. With expectations of a recovery in goods trade volumes in 2024 and 2025, growth is driven by increasing consumer demand and improved income prospects in advanced economies.

Global Trade portfolio, themed ‘Digitising the International Trade & the Sustainability and Transparency of Global Supply Chains’, will provide a platform to exchange expertise and innovations on efficiently digitising international trade and building more sustainable, transparent, and resilient supply chains, with a focus on reducing environmental impacts and improving transparency.

Attention will be given to green logistics, which has gained momentum with innovations such as electric vehicles and renewable energy sources in shipping. For example, DHL aims to achieve 60 percent of its fleet being electric by 2030. Globally, the transport and logistics sector contribute approximately 24 percent of CO2 emissions, highlighting the urgent need for cooperation and unified efforts to decarbonise and reduce emissions.

The 14th edition of AIM Congress will be held from April 7 to 9, 2025, under the theme ‘Mapping the Future of Global Investment: The New Wave of a Globalised Investment Landscape – Towards a New Balanced World Structure’, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. It will feature over 25,000 prominent participants from 180 countries.

AIM Congress 2025, an initiative of the AIM Global Foundation, is set to offer a wide range of activities, including events, forums, dialogue sessions, workshops, high-level meetings, the AIM Investment Awards and Exhibition, a startups competition, and showcases country-specific investment opportunities, highlighting eight key portfolios – Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Global Trade, Startups and Unicorns, Future Cities, Future Finance, Global Manufacturing, Digital Economy, and Entrepreneurs.