_BIOGRAPHY He has been the Coordinator of WAIPA in Geneva since 2016. An Austrian national and University of Vienna graduate, he is an expert in investment promotion and economic cooperation. Prior to WAIPA, he managed significant projects and assisted in organizational leadership at an NGO promoting economic cooperation in Southeast Europe.

WAIPA, THE WORLD ASSOCIATION OF INVESTMENT PROMOTION AGENCIES, IS A GENEVA-BASED GLOBAL NETWORK FOSTERING INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT.

WHAT ARE THE KEY OBJECTIVES FOR WAIPA IN THE 2024/25 PERIOD?

Overall, we are seeing investment promotion agencies (IPAs) becoming increasingly active. We support our members via technical assistance and capacity building as well as knowledge sharing platforms, but the impact goes beyond our membership towards the entire investment promotion community. With concrete initiatives such as the Climate Coalition or the G20 Group of IPAs, we aim to cement our role as a thought-leader and offer IPAs concrete actions and outcomes via the engagements. There are of course a number of overarching themes that guide our work in this period such as sustainable investments and digitalisation. Both continue to play a major role for IPAs and thus for our work. Another goal of WAIPA is to further include the private sector in all our initiatives. These overarching topics will guide discussions at our 28th WAIPA World Investment Conference held from 25-27 November 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, hosted by the Saudi Investment Promotion Authority (SIPA) under the theme of “Future-ready IPAs: Navigating Digital Disruption and Sustainable Growth”.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORLD INVESTMENT CONFERENCE?

Following the 27th WAIPA World Investment Conference in New Delhi last year, hosted by our current Presidency Invest India, we would like this year’s edition in Riyadh to be most impactful yet. We are constantly setting ourselves higher goals with each World Investment Conference. We feel that Riyadh is the right place to hold the WIC, as several very interesting initiatives are taking place. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 stands as a testament to its economic growth and diversification blueprint. Moreover, the high-level support we are receiving for hosting the WIC helps to bring decision makers from government and private sector alike, with the concrete outcome of impactful discussion and further opportunity for IPAs to connect globally and to strongly underline the important work of IPAs. More concretely, of course, fostering a stronger connection between the private sector and IPAs by having them meet at the WIC this year will be valuable for both IPAs and the private sector alike.

WHAT ARE THE ACTIVITIES BEING DONE WITHIN THE G20 IPA GROUP AND THE CLIMATE COALITION UNDER THE WEF?

The IPAs of G20 & Guest Nations is a very important initiative. It started with the G20 and WAIPA Presidency of Turkey in 2015 where Turkey put a strong emphasis on investments as a driver of growth. They formulated the priorities as three I’s: Inclusiveness, Implementation & Investment. As such, WAIPA organised a G20-WAIPA Conference on FDI. Later, when India had both the G20 and the WAIPA Presidency, this initiative became increasingly concrete. Not only was there a clear appetite among IPAs of the G20 countries for increased collaboration and information sharing, multiple consultations and discussions have helped shape a vision for "IPAs of G20”. Overall, WAIPA has a strong anchoring role, and we are happy that under the Brazilian Presidency and our current Regional Director for South America, APEX Brasil, these valuable consultations continue. There have been dedicated meetings held at the Annual Investment Meeting in Abu Dhabi earlier this year. The Brazilian Investment Forum will be another important gathering for the group. Our general aim via this engagement is to develop and implement actionable items and guidance to enhance capacity of IPAs, identify and address gaps in investment promotion, enhance opportunities, and overall develop sustainable and inclusive economies of tomorrow.

Another important initiative of the World Economic Forum and WAIPA is the Climate Coalition, along with 15 signatory IPAs. The primary aim is to foster knowledge sharing amongst communities of practice and private sector investments on best practices to facilitate climate FDI. Another goal is to establish joint supplier development programs to empower SMEs and domestic markets to increase their engagement in Global Value Chains. And third, the Coalition will promote climate-friendly investment projects and help IPAs to navigate the landscape of climate standards. At last year’s WIC, it was proposed that the Coalition could assist participants in establishing joint supplier development programs, navigating climate investment standards, aligning firms' climate commitments with climate-friendly investment projects, and sharing impactful stories of successful climate FDI facilitation measures. This year’s COP28 in Azerbaijan will be a good opportunity to highlight the Climate Coalition even further. Overall, there are three major points why we see that IPAs are of critical importance here: Firstly, to promote Climate FDI, secondly to implement targeted measures, and thirdly to foster collaborative environments.