The 2022 edition of the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM 2022), which will be held from March 29 to March 31, 2022, at the Dubai Exhibition Centre, EXPO 2020 Dubai, has announced a series of pre-conference activities designed to bolster and improve sustainable investments including key workshops focused on attracting new investments, future cities and youth entrepreneurship. AIM 2022 is being held under the patronage of His Highness HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, with the theme, ‘Investments in sustainable innovation for a thriving future.’
According to the show’s organizers, AIM 2022 has rolled out an extensive two-day agenda from March 26 to March 28, 2022. Activities include workshops carefully prepared by the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA) like ‘Attracting Quality Investments,’ ‘Integrating Innovative Approaches in Investment Promotion,’ ‘Customer Discovery: What’s the Problem and What Needs to be Validated,’ ‘What are Future Cities? How can FDI be leveraged to deliver Future Cities’ solutions,’ ‘Accelerating FDI in Uncertain Times,’ ‘Inclusive Sustainable Finance,’ and ‘Global Leaders Debate: Investments in Sustainable Innovation for a Thriving Future,’ to name a few.
In addition, participating speakers, composed of some of the world’s leading finance specialists, including Leticia Ponce, Associate Professor, IE Business School; John Hanna, Managing Director, GDP Global; Reem Badran, CEO, Alhurra Company for Management and Business Development; His Excellency (H.E.) Taha Ayhan, President, Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue & Cooperation, Turkey; Dr. Sara El Gazzar, Senior Advisor, Union of Arab Chambers; Philipp Bremer, Head of the Rule of Law Program MENA, Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung e.V., Germany; Dr. Henry Loewendahl, Chief Executive Officer, Wavteq; Chris Knight, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Wavteq; Hamda Khalil, Director of Credit Risk Department; Mohammed Bin Rashid, Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation; Baybars Altuntas, Chairman, World Business Angels Investment Forum, Turkey; Dr. Raafat Abbas, Head of Non-Financial Services Central Sector, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency, Egypt; Fajer Al Pachachi, General Manager, Hope Fund, Bahrain, and Dr. Ibrahim Al Rashid, CEO, Social Development Bank, Saudi Arabia, with more expecting to confirm in the next few days.
In a related matter, organizers of the show have revealed that businesses across the UAE today have expressed their bullishness on the further acquisition and adoption of newer technologies to help power their respective operations. Encouragingly, the country’s welcome attitude towards digital adoption has earmarked key investments across various forms of tech–including information and telecommunications, blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented and virtual reality, robotics, digital economy and software development among others.
“The UAE is widely recognized for being a global model for tech adoption, which is attributed to the strong support and guidance from the country’s wise leadership–ensuring that the UAE economy continues to be competitive and prosperous. At AIM 2022, we want to go further and explore the potential of tech investments by bringing these opportunities to the forefront,” said Walid Farghal, Director General, AIM Congress.
These tech-enabled industries, both in the region and from international markets, will have to prepare for an increased demand for their products and services. Companies offering solutions in e-Commerce, q-commerce, education tech, health tech, fintech, proptech and entertainment are expected to thrive this year.
