The Seventh Saudi General Conference on the Future Investment Initiative was held in Riyadh from 24 to 26 October. This is illustrated by the exchange that is taking place among the guests. I'm a reporter.
From 24 to 26 October, the Seventh Saudi Congress on the Future Investment Initiative (FII) was held in Riyadh. The Future Investment Initiative Conference is the largest international investment and innovation forum in the Middle East region. The Congress, which attracted some 6,000 participants from more than 90 countries and regions, focused on hot spots such as energy, climate, finance and technology, under the theme “New compass”, aimed at helping investors to reorient their development paths and strategies and respond to the opportunities and challenges of the new era.
At the opening meeting of the General Assembly, Yasser Rumayen, President of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the FII Investment Initiative, said that, as the monetary policy of multinational central banks tightens, Governments and enterprises must adapt to this “new reality”.
The General Assembly made “Global Energy Transformation” the first priority issue of its first day and called for increased investment in renewable energy.
Yasser stated that Saudi efforts in the area of energy transformation set a good example for the world. By 2030, Saudi Arabia plans to achieve 50 per cent of its electricity generation based on renewable energy, with another 50 per cent based on natural gas, which is lower than the emissions from oil generation. At the same time, there are plans to increase investment in renewable energy, with the goal of cumulative investment of $28.3 trillion between 2020 and 2045. The Saudi Minister of Energy, Abdelaziz Bin Salman, stated that, in the context of sustainable development, the Kingdom ' s commitment to the Paris Agreement was unwavering and that its implementation was not selective but mandatory.
At the same time, the Kingdom emphasizes that the importance of traditional fossil energy sources cannot be ignored. At the meeting, Abdelaziz expressed the need for hydrocarbons, including petrochemical products, for energy transformation and noted that the recent acquisition of billions of dollars by ExxonMobil and Chevron demonstrated that hydrocarbons would continue to exist and were an important part of the energy transformation. The Saudi Arabian Chief Executive Officer, Amin Nasser, stated that the energy transition could not be “one size fits all” and that it would have an impact on the economy if fossil fuels were abandoned before other energy sources were cost-effective. “Everyone is talking about hydrogen energy, but its cost is much higher than conventional energy, with the price of blue hydrogen being $200 per barrel and the price of green hydrogen being $400 per barrel.” He noted that, while 80 per cent of the energy currently produced went to the countries of the South, which would rise to 90 per cent by 2050, the current energy transition did not really address the priorities of the countries of the South. He therefore called for the development of different economies, affordability of alternative energy and growing demand for electricity to be taken into account in the discussion of energy transformation, without which the global sustainable development goals could not be achieved.
This session of the General Assembly fully expresses its interest in the development of the global South. In addition to the above-mentioned energy issues, the General Assembly has adopted solutions to increase investment in emerging markets in environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG), with the goal of increasing asset management in emerging markets to 30 per cent of the global sustainable development portfolio by 2030 through the implementation of an inclusive ESG rating methodology. According to FII Institute, emerging markets, with 86 per cent of the global population and 58 per cent of global GDP, receive less than 10 per cent of ESG investment, far from the scale required for sustainable growth and insufficient to meet the investment gap of $2.5 trillion to $3.7 trillion per year required to achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals. It therefore calls on political and business leaders and investors to take action to address inequalities in the current ESG framework and to close the $5.4 trillion investment gap in emerging markets. In addition, the agenda of the General Assembly included a number of discussion points on the global South and had led to a number of cooperations in the areas of education and livelihood in low- and middle-income countries.
The Conference also demonstrated the outcome and determination of the Saudi economic transition and encouraged investors to participate in the process of diversification of the Saudi economy.
In the tourism sector, for example, the Saudi Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khatib, stated during the meeting that the number of Saudi tourists is expected to reach 100 million during the year, accounting for about 6 per cent of GDP, ahead of the target planned for 2030. At present, the Saudi Ministry of Tourism has increased the target of the number of tourists by 2030 to 150 million, with an estimated 75 million international and domestic visitors each in the new target. Khatib stated that Saudi investment in tourism development would exceed $800 billion over the next 10 years. The conference ' s strategic partners included Saudi institutions and enterprises focused on tourism, such as the Saudi Royal Council for Europe (RCU), Diriyah Company and Red Sea Global, among others, to encourage participants to participate in the transformation of the Saudi economy through investment in tourism.
The Officer-in-Charge of the Royal Council of Europe stated that the Agency, in cooperation with PIF ' s fully-owned company, the European Development Corporation (UDC), was further strengthening its tourism development in the Eurasia region, with projects covering a wide range of hotel, residential, retail, commercial and infrastructure areas, which would provide a wide range of investment opportunities for domestic and foreign investors. (The daily newspaper in Riyadh)