HE Alessandro Teixeira, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Brazil, Chairman of ApexBrazil, President of WAIPA (World Association for Investment Promotion Agencies)

FDI attraction is as challenging as it has ever been. Capital increasingly flows out of new source countries, and into a broader range of projects, in mature and emerging economies alike. WAIPA is well aware of the need to closely watch these emerging trends. Our World Association salutes the efforts put into this UAE-sponsored Annual Investment Meeting and has welcomed the opportunity to contribute towards its success.

Petko Dragonov, Deputy Secretary General, UNCTAD

UNCTAD is pleased to participate in the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2011 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where it will stage a High-level Meeting on Green Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and an Investment Showcase of selected developing countries. FDI can play an important role in stimulating growth and employment and in bringing much needed capital and know-how to developing countries. The High-level Meeting will focus on how FDI is also instrumental in developing a low-carbon economy, which is critical to combating climate change and a driver for the diversification of energy sources. (Excerpt from the statement by Supachai Panitchpakdi, the Secretary-General of UNCTAD.)

HE Gita Wirjawan, Chairman, Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board

The Investment Coordinating Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BKPM) recognizes that times of transformation heightens the urgency of establishing integrated platforms to strengthen new and existing ties between the Middle East and growth markets around the world. I am honoured to be part of this prestigious event that will convene many of the world's prominent government officials, international promotion agencies and corporations from fast growing economies. The holistic way in which this conference is approached will undoubtedly encourage greater levels of investment between participants, as each share information on opportunities in their countries. I believe this will be great event to share a new ideas for establishing new partnerships between us. Finally, I wish you all an impactful and productive meeting.

HE Fahad Al Gergawi, CEO, Foreign Investment Office of the Department of Economic Development of the Emirate of Dubai

The Foreign Investment Office of the Department of Economic Development of the Emirate of Dubai is proud to be a part of the Annual Investment Meeting. AIM is a strategic step towards help build a perennial hub for investment intelligence in the UAE and with the global investment community. This is an exceptional opportunity for fast transforming economies and emerging markets to present to the world a compelling value proposition. Our role is to empower initiatives aiming at strengthening trade & business relationships between UAE and our international partners. AIM is the dedicated meeting platform to further this objective.

HE Y. Bhg Datuk Jalilah Baba, Director General, Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA)

I believe that The Annual Investment Meeting 2011 will be a beneficial event. As an industrial promotion agency of Malaysia we are very proud to be part of it. We are confident that this event would further boost our country's profile as a premier destination for investment and simultaneously contribute towards greater economic growth for Malaysia and this region. This is an excellent opportunity for us to present Malaysia's investment environment and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate The United Arab Emirates' Ministry of Foreign Trade for organizing this great event.

Imad Ghandour, CEO, Cedar Bridge

AIM is a unique event that will ameliorate the investment cycle in UAE by bringing together key decision makers from private and public sectors into an open dialogue. Whilst the region is facing such unprecedented levels of uncertainty, this open dialogue will surely clarify the investment prospects in UAE and the larger region.

HE Samer Asfour, Chief Executive Officer, Jordan Investment Board

JIB is honored to be part of AIM 2011 which is the first of its kind in the region and brings together high ranking officials from the five continents. We aim to benefit from the best practices of promotional agencies participating in this event and share our own experiences in investment promotion. Furthermore, our main goal is to showcase Jordan's investment environment and the opportunities that are available for interested partners from the international and regional arenas. Jordan's safe and stable environment, educated and qualified human capital, and liberalized economy that positions the Kingdom at the forefront of regional destinations for FDI. (Speech at the AIM delivered by Nidal Dabbas, Director Investment at JIB)

Edward Burton, President, US-Saudi Arabia Business Council

I am very pleased to participate in this Annual Investment Meeting, organized by the Ministry of Foreign Trade. This event provides an ideal opportunity to highlight what we at the U.S.-Saudi Arabian Business Council know to be one of the world's premier foreign direct investment environments. The Kingdom's door to foreign capital investment is wide open and the unprecedented public spending on infrastructure, welfare of its people and technological innovation has created extraordinary opportunities for companies in the U.S. up to the challenge to compete in this global marketplace."

Marios Tannousis, Senior Officer, Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency

The Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency is actively participating in strategic events such as AIM 2011 because we feel that they provide excellent business opportunities and bolster trade and investments. The various activities taking place are an excellent platform for presenting the benefits and advantages of a country like Cyprus, an international business and financial centre, which is at the crossroads of three continents, a member of the European Union and offers a transparent and effective tax environment. We also have the opportunity to exchange views and learn from each other with a scope to help and facilitate investments and economic growth as well as development that is much needed in the present times. We have no doubt that this will be a successful event and that will enrich us with its content, findings and conclusions. We would like to thank the hosts, partners and co-organizers for inviting us to participate in such a high level event.

Tariq Ramadan, Chief Executive Officer, Tharaa Holding, Dubai UAE
Speaker at the AIM Conference (Day Three, Panel on Real Estate & Property Development"), Exhibitor at AIM Exhibition

First of all I wanted to congratulate you on the great organisation of AIM 2011, and considering this is the first conference, I believe it was very successful and useful for all participants. I would also like to thank you and your team for giving us the opportunity to speak as part of the real estate panel, and to participate in the exhibition. From our side, we managed to develop great exposure through the speaking opportunity, participating at the exhibition, as well as networking with the other participants, and our plan for next year is to have a more structured networking approach and session attendance. I'm also happy to share with you the media coverage for the press release related to Tharaa Holding signing an MOU with the Military Property Agency of Poland.

Raul Kharbanda, UKTI

My own feedback for the WAIPA Working Session is that it was a rare and valuable opportunity to meet other investment promotion agencies in an open, non-competitive environment. I realised that we share similar issues, similar challenges, and perhaps through co-operation share similar solutions, to our mutual benefit.

Oscar Alvarez Calvada, Chief Executive officer, SIEG

We live in a world of rapid changes and transformations and the old predictive models are no longer useful. In this scenario, Strategic Intelligence has become an imperative for organizations. The intelligence process enables turning information into intelligence by processing it via analysis, interpretation and synthesis and utilizing it in the future-oriented decision-making. Managing the future does not only mean being able to anticipate what will happen outside the company but also being able to shape the happenings through own actions, i.e. to proactively create one's future, and the Annual Investment Meeting and the WAIPA Working Session were an excellent opportunity for it."

Juliusz Klosowski, General Director, Warsaw Voice S.A.

AIMing High

The Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2011 proved a resounding success and I am positive that next year’s meeting will be even more successful. All participants from Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe interested in the Arabian Gulf region should add the Annual Investment Meeting to their list of must-attend events. The meeting is an excellent opportunity to establish contacts with business leaders in the United Arab Emirates and the entire Persian Gulf region. Those are extremely attractive markets with enormous potential. The Annual Investment Meeting 2011 also showed that investors from those countries are interested in what Poland has to offer. Growing cooperation between Poland and the Persian Gulf region presents endless benefits for all parties.

Hussein Doughan, Euromonitor International, Regional Manager – Middle East, North Africa & Turkey

The Annual Investment Meeting is a must-attend event that helped Euromonitor International get closer to foreign trade policy movers and shakers across the world.

Walid Al Kaddour, Director, Arab-Argentina Chamber of Commerce

The Argentina-Arab Chamber of Commerce sees in the Annual Investment Meeting a great opportunity to further economic cooperation between one of the fastest growing economy in Latin America and the GCC region. We are here to build hope-for synergies as we strongly believe in expending trade and business avenues across continents. We are confident that sustaining our partnerships  and strengthening our ties with the GCC will translate into viable economic opportunities for both regions, which now are much more linked and connected thru the new routes Dubai-Buenos Aires developed by the Dubai´s most successful story, Emirates Airlines.

Mrs. Wafaa Sobhy, Chairwoman of ANIMA Investment Network

In 2010 developing countries received over 50% of the global FDI inflows and generated record levels of FDI outflows. This illustrates how key these countries have become for the vitality of the global economy. They not only represent new growing markets, they propose new business and productive approaches, new opportunities with the capacity to mobilize financing means. ANIMA is very proud to take part in the organisation of the Annual Investment Meeting in Dubai, by bringing businesses and countries willing to engage in sustainable partnerships with investors. The new Mediterranean is going to reinvent its relationship with its neighbors, for the benefit of its peoples, and being in Dubai at AIM shall be a milestone in this process.

Nouriel Roubini, CEO, Roubini Global Economics

Looking forward in 2012 and beyond, the state of the global economy looks gloomy with high unemployment rates, mounting sovereign debt and limited economic growth in mature markets. Emerging Market economies are slowing down but continue to grow strongly, and have strong long-term prospects, particularly those that have improved macroeconomic management, better use of foreign capital and stronger education. South-South trade and investment is on the rise. The next step will be policies that improve coordination and increase final demand in both EM economies, to help rebalance global growth and increase global demand. We will discussing these realities at the Annual Investment Meeting in Dubai.

Grant Thornton

We, at Grant Thornton, are committed to a strong culture of innovation, commitment to quality and leadership and as part of our corporate social responsibility; it is our pride and pleasure to be working closely with the organizing committee for the 2nd edition of the Annual Investment Meeting, in making this event as successful as the first edition in 2011. Having established our presence in the Republic of Azerbaijan and all over the CIS region thru our regional offices, we are in a proper position to support the objective of AIM of highlighting financing options and emphasizing trading possibilities in frontier and emerging markets with a strong focus on high growth sectors. Azerbaijan is today's leading economy in the CIS region being considered an important gateway to north Iran, East Turkey, Russia and even further to Kazakhstan and China and investment potentials are vast welcoming creations of business networks and strategic commercial alignments. Grant Thornton is capable of supporting the initiatives taken by the UAE government in creating bilateral relations between companies from the UAE and the CIS region.