Future Investment Conference: High-level opening

Addressing speakers of opening statements:

• Your Excellency, Mr. Zhou Zuyi, Secretary of the CPC Fujian Provincial Committee, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial People's Congress;
• Your Excellency, Mr. Ling Ji, Vice Minister of Commerce;

Addressing keynote speakers:

• Your Excellency, Mr. Shahin Mustafayev, Deputy Prime Minister, Azerbaijan (tbc);
• Your Excellency, Mr. Sun Chanthol, Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia;
• Your Excellency, Ms. Adrijana Mesarovic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Serbia;
• Your Excellency, Mr. Khodjayev Jamshid Abdukhakimovich,Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Uzbekistan (tbc)

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

It is a great honour to welcome you to the inaugural Future Investment Conference on behalf of UN Trade and Development. I am delighted to be with you for this important occasion, and I extend my gratitude to the Ministry of Commerce of China for hosting this conference as a flagship event in the context of CIFIT.

We launch this conference at a decisive moment: when the world urgently needs more investment, and when that investment must be better aligned with the needs of the future.

Investment is the engine of development. It finances infrastructure, drives technological progress, and creates jobs. Yet, investment is faltering. As highlighted in our World Investment Report, global foreign direct investment has now declined for two consecutive years — falling by 11% in 2024 alone.

Even more concerning is where investment is not going. Least developed countries, landlocked developing nations, and small island states continue to capture only a small share of global flows. And in sectors most critical for the Sustainable Development Goals, investment is in sharp retreat:

• Renewable energy fell by 31%,
• Water and sanitation by 30%,
• Agrifood systems by 19%.

Only health saw growth — nearly 20% — yet the total amounted to less than 15 billion dollars worldwide.

The result is stark: the SDG investment gap, already at 4 trillion US dollars annually, is widening.

Excellencies,
Development does not happen by chance. It happens because we choose to invest in it. Today, the very foundations of development are under strain.

Let me illustrate this with three examples:

First, the digital revolution. The future will be even more digital than the present. Yet, while foreign investment in digital industries rose by 14% last year, 80% of that growth went to just ten countries. For most developing nations, the digital revolution remains out of reach — held back by weak infrastructure, fragile policy frameworks, and underdeveloped investment ecosystems.

Second, international project finance. This is the lifeline for energy, transport, and public services. Yet in 2024, project finance collapsed by 26%, with the steepest declines in the world’s most vulnerable economies.

Third, clean energy. Global energy investment is projected to reach 3.3 trillion US dollars in 2025, with two-thirds flowing into clean technologies. China alone invested 625 billion last year, reaching its 2030 renewable energy targets six years ahead of schedule. But Africa received less than 2% of global clean energy investment. Not because of a lack of sunlight or ambition — but because of too few bankable projects, scarce affordable finance, and insufficient cross-border infrastructure.

Distinguished Guests,
The challenge is not only to mobilize more investment — but to redirect investment flows toward long-term sustainability.

At UNCTAD, we are working to build a global sustainable investment and finance ecosystem — one that connects capital with impact, and policy with practice. Let me highlight four initiatives:

• The UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative: engaging exchanges covering over 90% of global market capitalization to strengthen environmental, social and governance - ESG - performance and transparency.
• The Global Alliance of Special Economic Zones: advancing innovation, knowledge-sharing, and inclusive growth with seven partner associations — including the 3rd Annual Conference, proudly hosted here in Xiamen last year.
• Our Intergovernmental Working Group on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting: helping countries improve the quality, comparability, and credibility of sustainability and SDG reporting.
• The Sustainable Finance Observatory: partnering with institutional investors and policymakers across 35 countries — representing 93% of global GDP — to advance best practices in sustainable finance.

All these efforts share a single purpose: to mobilize and channel investment where it is needed most, and where it can have the greatest impact.

The Future Investment Conference is more than a platform. It is a call to action. A forum where ideas meet investment, where innovation meets impact, and where leaders from government, business, and finance can forge solutions together.

In a world of rising uncertainty, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to redefine the future of investment. Let us seize this moment — to accelerate sustainable development, to unlock opportunities for all, and to ensure that the investments we make today build a more equitable, resilient, and prosperous tomorrow.

Thank you.