Global FDI into developing countries set to plunge this year

A drop in investment in emerging markets in Africa, Asia and South America will make the UN's sustainable development goals harder to hit, Unido official says

An aerial view from Sugarloaf mountain looking down to the city of Rio de Janeiro. Emerging economies in South America, Africa and Asia will all suffer from lower foreign direct investment in 2020, acShow more

Foreign direct investment into developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America is set to drop by as much as 50 per cent amid the Covid-19 pandemic, threatening the world’s ability to achieve the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Prior to the virus outbreak, the world was facing an estimated $2.5 trillion (Dh9.16tn) per year gap to implement SDGs and the current situation may widen it further, which could amplify challenges in global production, Bernardo Calzadilla-Sarmiento, a senior United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) official, said.

Innovation, knowledge sharing, and strategic partnerships are vital to realise the digital transformation for achieving SDGs and inclusivity in sustainable industrial development, Calzadilla-Sarmiento, managing director of Unido's directorate of digitalisation, technology and agribusiness, said at the virtual Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS).

“However, we need to make sure that nobody is left behind while pursuing future manufacturing with advanced technologies,” he said. “This means ensuring inclusion of vulnerable groups, as Covid-19 has exposed the problem of inequality.”

Experts from John Cabot University Rome, Kaspersky, The EuroScience Open Forum, University of Tokyo and CloudMinds also addressed the summit, which is a joint initiative between the UAE and Unido.

In spite of obvious challenges the pandemic has posed, it also provides an opportunity to accelerate progress towards collaborative solutions to development issues, most notably to advance manufacturing technologies and digitalisation, according to a GMIS statement on Tuesday.

“The fourth industrial revolution has the potential to contribute to increased resource efficiency and help shift towards a more circular economy,” Mr Calzadilla-Sarmiento said. “And this is the big opportunity we have to take into account that we need to recover from the pandemic in a different manner.”

Experts underlined gender skills gaps, gender equality and education as challenges that need to be addressed to achieve the SDGs.

“Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 will alter the way we live and work and it is the job of international organisations, such as Unido, to ensure that no one is left behind on this transformative journey,” Weixi Gong, chief of Unido's investment and technology promotion division, said.