Your Excellency, Julio Moltó, Minister of Commerce and Industry of Panama,
Your Excellency, Mr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al-Sayed, Minister of State for Foreign Trade Affairs of Qatar,
Your Excellency, Thomas Steffen, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany,
Your Excellency, Ms. Sung-yo Choi, Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea Mission to the WTO,
Dear Xiangchen Zhang, Deputy Director-General of the WTO,
Dear Joanna Szychowska, Director at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade,
Dear Patience Okala, Senior Adviser to the Minister, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment of Nigeria,
Dear Nan Li Collins, Director of our Division on Investment and Enterprise,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to welcome you to this high-level dialogue on progress, prospects, and policy options for investment facilitation.
We are meeting at a moment when global investment is declining, even when the demand for investment has never been greater. Developing countries alone need an estimated 4 trillion US dollars each year to create jobs, build infrastructure, and advance sustainable development.
Yet, the type of investment that drives real economic transformation—that builds industries rather than merely passing through economies—fell by 11 per cent in 2024.
Flows to the 44 least developed countries still account for just 2 per cent of the global total.
And investment in SDG-related sectors—such as renewable energy, water and sanitation, and agrifood systems—dropped by over 20 per cent last year.
Facilitating investment is therefore critical to changing this trajectory and scaling up investment for development.
Many governments are already acting. At the national level, procedures are being simplified, approvals accelerated, and digital one-stop shops introduced. Countries are also adapting international investment agreements to include facilitation provisions.
Across regions, progress is accelerating—from the AfCFTA Protocol on Investment in Africa, to the ASEAN Investment Facilitation Framework, and Brazil’s post-2015 bilateral agreements—all placing investment facilitation at the centre of policy innovation.
At the multilateral level, the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement under negotiation at the WTO could become the first plurilateral accord dedicated to this issue.
These reforms benefit not only foreign investors, but also local enterprises, the true backbone of every economy.
Digitalization has been a driving force behind this progress.
UNCTAD has worked with more than 60 countries to build digital platforms that cut costs, reduce delays, and enhance transparency.
For example:
- In Angola, the investment approval process is moving fully online.
- In Jamaica, investor services in special economic zones are being digitalized.
- In The Gambia and Zimbabwe, online registration systems are now being established.
Since 2016, when UNCTAD launched the Global Action Menu on Investment Facilitation, the number of developing countries with online single windows has increased five-fold.
And we continue to innovate with tools such as the Investment Facilitation Agreements Database and the IFD Self-Assessment Guide to support countries in advancing reforms.
But we must also recognize that investment facilitation alone is not enough to close the global investment gap. It is a necessary step—but not a sufficient one.
Excellencies,
Our discussion today offers a valuable opportunity to reflect on what it truly takes to mobilize investment at scale.
At the country level, this means broadening reforms from investment to business facilitation, advancing digital government solutions, and complementing facilitation with proactive investment promotion.
Financial and technical support to make these reforms tangible on the ground must be a shared priority.
Yet, we must also think bigger—about how to facilitate investment not only for individual projects, but for entire economies, and ultimately for the global system as a whole.
UNCTAD stands ready to support these efforts and help anchor investment in predictability, stability, and cooperation.
I look forward to your insights and to a rich and forward-looking discussion.
Thank you.