His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid attends Annual Investment Meeting's opening session.

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, today launched the e-Platform for Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, established by the UAE Ministry of Economy, at the inaugural session of the Annual Investment Meeting, AIM, being held at the Dubai World Trade Centre on Monday.

The e-Platform will help record the flow of FDI and promote FDI opportunities in the UAE for the global pool of investors to benefit from. The easy to use and to navigate web portal is part of the government’s smart services mission to take the public services to the fingertips of users.

"As we gather here, we have a few reasons to rejoice. Global economic growth is improving and short-term prospects look positive. The world economy is gathering speed with growth forecast for 2018-2019, according to the IMF, pegged at 3.9 percent," Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, said during his inaugural speech.

"The recovery in economy in a number of the key sectors such as investment, manufacturing and trade had a significant impact on strengthening the fundamentals of Global Economic Growth. This recovery was more visible in emerging markets and developing economies, with average growth estimates for these markets at around 4.5 percent in 2018.

"However, in contrast to the positive world macroeconomic figures, international financial flows depict a stark different picture. Global FDI fell by 16 percent in 2017 to an estimated US$1.52 trillion, according to the latest UNCTAD Global Investment Trends Monitor.

Al Mansouri added that a reading in the Global Investment Flows map shows that developing countries maintained stable rates of FDI attraction compared to last year. Developing Asia remains a formidable economic force on the world stage and has regained its position as the largest FDI recipient region in the world, followed by the European Union and North America."

The three-day meeting, attended by high-profile officials that include 25 federal ministers and 19 mayors from other countries, eight organisation heads, one head of parliament and investors, will see the signing of a number of agreements and announcements that will help countries boost the flow of Foreign Direct Investment.

Al Mansoori said, the Annual Investment Meeting became a regional and international landmark for Foreign Direct Investment and exchange of knowledge and best practices between emerging and developed markets, where it gains tremendous and continuous support from the leaders, decision makers and officials worldwide.

World merchandise exports, valued at US$15.46 trillion in 2016, is expected to grow this year as the global economy likely to record 3.9 percent growth in 2018, a senior officials of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, said.

"Economic data and forecasts from the International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank and others have been revised steadily upwards over the last year, which would tend to indicate a sustained recovery of trade in 2018 following strong trade growth in 2017," Yonov Frederick Agah, Deputy Director-General of WTO, said.

"However, trade frictions and geopolitical tensions have also risen sharply in recent months. Increased use of restrictive trade measures – and the retaliation that this would invite – could easily undermine a generally positive outlook for trade," he added.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid expressed his happiness at the intensive international presence of this world event, and said that the UAE always opens its doors to guests, investors, tourists, scientists and experts, who enrich the economic, investment, tourism and cultural movement with their expertise and knowledge and exchange creative ideas with their counterparts from the UAE and other countries.

​