Thank you, Mr. Al Dardari. Minister Bourita, Administrator de Croo, Excellencies, colleagues.
At its core, financing development means getting capital to move where people need it most. Today, capital moves in the opposite direction.
I want to make two points. A point about where investment is going. And a point about what it takes to redirect it.
I will start with where investment is going.
Global foreign direct investment reached 1.6 trillion dollars in 2025. That headline sounds encouraging. Look closer: flows to developed economies rose 43%. Flows to developing economies fell. In three-quarters of the least developed countries, inflows were stagnant or declining.
The concentration is structural. Data centres and semiconductors now account for a fifth of all greenfield investment value worldwide. This capital flows to a handful of countries with the infrastructure, the talent and the regulatory certainty to absorb it. Tariffs redirect supply chains. Investor screening regimes restrict access to strategic sectors. For many developing countries, each measure narrows the pipeline further.
International project finance – the instrument most directly tied to infrastructure and energy transition – has declined for four consecutive years. Values fell 16% last year alone. Investors are pulling back from the long-term commitments that developing countries need most.
Yet there are bright spots worth noting. Greenfield project announcements in Africa rose 5% last year, reaching 639 new projects. Morocco, Egypt, Côte d'Ivoire and Mozambique attracted significant capital. This tells us something important: when project preparation is solid and governance conditions are credible, investors respond.
This brings me to my second point – what it takes to redirect investment.
The Sevilla Commitment gave us the roadmap. I see three enabling conditions.
First, de-risking at scale. Blended finance and guarantee instruments work. A well-structured guarantee facility can unlock multiples of its own value in private capital. The challenge is that these instruments remain fragmented and small. We need to move from pilot projects to platforms.
Second, pipeline readiness. Some investors don’t lack appetite, but they lack projects. The gap between national priorities and bankable proposals remains a critical bottleneck. Initiatives like UNDP's Investment Accelerator, Morocco's CDG Group and UN Trade and Development's investment facilitation work exist to close that gap – and they need to be connected and scaled.
Third, market scale through regional cooperation. Individual economies, particularly smaller ones, struggle to attract large investors alone. Cross-border corridors, harmonized standards and regional co-investment vehicles transform fragmented markets into investable ones. The African Continental Free Trade Area offers exactly that opportunity.
Excellencies, the capital exists. The instruments exist. The political commitment, reaffirmed in Sevilla, exists. The task ahead is execution – turning frameworks into pipelines and pipelines into projects that reach people.
Thank you.