My interviews about the Geneva-based World Investment Forum (WIF)

The World Investment Forum (WIF) took place in the United Nations campus in Geneva on October 22-26, 2018. This forum -- organized by the United Nations (UNCTAD) -- gathered over 6000 participants including an array of country presidents and ministers. This event is described as the “pre-eminent global platform for investment and development”.

On the occasion of this forum, I was interviewed by several leading medias including China’s Phoenix TV (see illustration). In a nutshell, I highlighted the following points.

A.    To have such a large international event in Geneva is of course a great honour for Geneva and Switzerland. Such a forum reinforces the role of Geneva as an international and neutral platform to address international issues. Naturally, local service providers such as hotels also benefit from such an event.

B.    Many investment-related topics have been covered in this WIF and important outputs have been reached e.g. policy recommendations regarding the legal framework to encourage sustainable investments.

C.    I also identified some opportunities for future improvements such as:

·     The practical topic “how to attract foreign companies” could be covered more emphatically.

·     While we have been honoured by the presence of strong delegations from e.g. African and CIS countries, a stronger presence of leading countries in the field of international investments (e.g. USA, Japan, China, Korea, Germany, Singapore, Netherlands, Ireland, etc.) would certainly be beneficial.  

·     Given that the WIF is more an event for policy-makers than for investors, the merits of the many national booths – that targets potential investors -- could be revaluated.

@PhilippeMonnier