In anticipation of the 9th edition of Annual Investment Meeting, investment promotion professionals will be offered fresher perspectives on how to attract foreign direct investment as World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) leads Annual Investement Meeting, AIM workshop on 8-10 April 2019 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

AIM is an initiative of the Ministry of Economy under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai.

The workshop on Trends in Investment Promotion and Their Impact, organized by WAIPA, will be led by Sarah Russis Kraiem, Head of Global Sales, fDi Intelligence.

The workshop will cover the rapidly-changing trends within Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) and how their growing number of mandates impact their adaptability to remain competitive.

Investment professionals will also unfold opportunities for IPAs to reach their potential amidst the current trends and external influences that may play a crucial part for them to attract investments.

Read more: China to expand investment in UAE through Annual Investment Meeting

The concept of smart city now goes beyond utilization of smart technology. It compasses the necessary investment to build smart infrastructure. John Hanna, Director of GDP Global, will lead the discussion on How to Create Smart Cities, a workshop organized by GDP Global.

GDP-led workshop will discuss enabling policies and programmes to create competitive smart city regions and the best practices that will place city regions on the global map for trade and investment. Hanna will also discuss the seven economic programmes that smart city regions will have to deliver and how to implement smart city investment.

The third workshop touches closer to home with the topic How to Attract FDI from the Gulf:

Investment Opportunities and Best Practices which will include modules on FDI trends and opportunities for Gulf investment overseas, best practices on how to identify and engage with Gulf companies, success case studies from other IPAs, and business culture and how to nurture and build relations with investment decision-makers and close deals.

Said workshop will be led by WAVTEQ and will have the insights from its founder and CEO, Henry Loewendahl with other WAVTEQ experts Ralf Dagenhardt, CEO-Europe Arab Associates, Nisan Abdulkader, Emerging Market Specialist, Chris Knight, Chief Commerical Officer, Daniel Callaghan, Senior VP-EMEA.

The final workshop will touch on the accelerating rate of global change and the challenges it presents to maintain competitive advantage.

The workshop, which will be organized by CONWAY, will have the topic The Future of Investment Promotion in an Era of Disruption. Discussing the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how digitization impacts the future of work, connectivity, political instability, protectionism, and new modes of collaboration will be discussed by Conway VPs-advisory, Douglas van den Berghe and Guillermo Mazier.