Launch of The World Investment for Development Alliance (WIDA) during World Economic Forum at Davos 2022

The launch of WIDA is a momentous event as it has been founded by 10 prominent organizations – AIB, AUC, IISD, ITC, OECD, UNCTAD, UNESCAP, WAIPA, WBG and WEF.

WIDA is co-created, co-developed and co-implemented through extensive partnerships and collaboration. WIDA’s mission is to promote sustainable and inclusive investments through an open and structured network of multiple stakeholders.

The impact and importance of WIDA rests on the shoulders of its stalwart founding members AIB, AUC, IISD, ITC, OECD, UNCTAD, UNESCAP, WAIPA, WBG and WEF. WIDA will remain focused on developing a coherent vision for international investment, to promote inclusive and sustainable investments, benefitting all of mankind.

This is the first-time leading organizations from the investment for development community have come together to collaborate on existing investment promotion activities and launch new initiatives to scale investment promotion at national, regional, and multilateral levels.

 

The Launch Event

The launch took place in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos on May 23, 2022. A two-part session Co-organized by two of WIDA founding organizations; WAIPA and UNCTAD, titled; Driving Development with Investment Alliances, which delved on topics of relevance to help accelerate FDI.

The session started with a Keynote address by James Zhan, Director of Investment and Enterprise at UNCTAD, followed by the Official launch of World Investment for Development Alliance (WIDA) which also included a video with statements by all participating organisations mentioning why they have joined establishing this important alliance specially at this challenging time.

For videos and more information, visit WIDA offical website: https://widalliance.org 

The second part was a panel discussion about Accelerating GVC reconfiguration, where Global supply chains has been discussed and how restructuring them create resilience in the new changing world post the pandemic and during these challenging times. These large-scale adjustments to production systems will help determine international capital flows.

 

Moderated by Sean Doherty or Matthew Stephenson, WEF, panellist were;

  • Deepak Bagla, President, WAIPA
  • Maurizio Tamagnini, Chairman of the STMicroelectronics Supervisory Board
  • Axel van Trotsenburg, Managing Director, Operations, World Bank
  • Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, State Secretary for Economic Affairs of Switzerland.

For videos and more about the session, check out this Linkedin Post or Twitter of WAIPA.