Future Investment Initiative: Innovation Is Key to Enhancing Global Human Capabilities

Governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) Yasir Al-Rumayyan stressed the need for the world to be open to innovation, highlighting the importance of investors joining efforts to achieve long-term ambitions.

In remarks on Tuesday at the Future Investment Initiative forum, Al-Rumayyan said that Saudi Arabia has been able to create partnerships with international companies to achieve sustainability, pointing out that the Future Investment Initiative (FII) was the engine of global cooperation.

- Diversified industries

Various industries such as telecommunications, health, retail and other sectors are among the main factors that contributed to the global movement, the PIF governor said, stressing that the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the industrial movement, prompting the Kingdom to exploit the available opportunities.

He explained that the FII developed a framework for governance and social environment for new markets, with a focus on measuring performance and the impact of environmental and social governance on our lives.

Al-Rumayyan also noted that data was an important factor in dealing with global crises such as climate change. He said that the PIF was the first sovereign fund to issue green bonds, stressing that the voluntary carbon market was an opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs to unite efforts to find educational prospects for young people in the knowledge economy.

- Investment and technology

Participants in the session entitled, “The New Global Order: A View from the Change Makers Council”, touched on investment and technology and their ability to improve the lives of human society, noting that advanced technologies have entered all areas of life.

The speakers noted that 1.1 billion people were able to get out of poverty between 1990 and 2015, relying on progress in health, medicine and biotechnology, which contributed to the achievement of advanced health care, in addition to the widespread availability of food thanks to innovations in sustainable agriculture.

They emphasized that educational technology has contributed to personal progress, while consumer-centric technology - from smartphones to wearable devices - has increased productivity, enabled creativity, and accelerated overall self-awareness.

- Collective vision

Participants discussed humanity’s collective vision of the new global order, how investors and business leaders can contribute to innovations that enhance human capabilities around the world, and whether such direction will create a multipolar order, or hinder opportunities for collaborative progress.

During the session, Al-Rumayyan underlined the importance of assuming a proactive role to achieve an impact on humanity, while Catherine McGregor, global CEO of French ENGIE, said that investing heavily in renewable energy should be a priority, because it provides a vital solution to the shortage of modern and future energy supplies.

- The future of supply

On the other hand, Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director and CEO of the UAE’s Mubadala Group, said that the future of sustainable supply chains depended on the cooperation of investors and energy entities, as he explained the potential solutions to supply chain disruptions.

For his part, David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, emphasized the importance for change makers to have insight into policy decision-making, and to keep pace with humanity’s collective vision of a new world order.

- Supporting humanity

Richard Attias, CEO of the Future Investment Initiative Foundation, said that the sixth edition of the FII forum would feature 180 sessions that will be held simultaneously, in addition to 30 workshops and 4 mini-summits distributed over three days.

He pointed to the importance of collective action to achieve a significant impact on areas that support human advancement.

- Survey

Attias presented a survey conducted by Ipsos on 130,000 adults from 13 countries, representing nearly 50 percent of the world’s population, in an attempt by the FII Foundation to provide insights into the world’s highest priorities in light of unprecedented social, environmental and identity challenges.

He revealed that 77 percent of the respondents said they were optimistic about a better future, according to the survey, which also found that financial security was one of the most important challenges faced by 50 percent of people around the world, in addition to the costs on income, as well as global warming and climate change.

- Investing in humanity

A panel discussion entitled, “Our Humanity, Our Priority”, touched upon the importance of investing in humanity to curb unemployment and poverty, as well as addressing climate change and caring for the planet.

The discussion was attended by the former Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee, the founder of Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, the founder of Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call for economic integration across Europe on Friday, arguing that intensifying global trade tensions and a growing technology gap with the United States create fresh urgency for action.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on most if not all imports and said Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades.
"The geopolitical environment has also become less favorable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world," Lagarde said in a speech, without directly referring to Trump.
"The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen."
While Europe has made some progress, EU members tend to water down most proposals to protect vested national interests to the detriment of the bloc as a whole, Reuters quoted Lagarde as saying.
But this is taking hundreds of billions if not trillions of euros out of the economy as households are holding 11.5 trillion euros in cash and deposits, and much of this is not making its way to the firms that need the funding.
"If EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to 8 trillion euros could be redirected into long-term, market-based investments – or a flow of around 350 billion euros annually," Lagarde said.
When the cash actually enters the capital market, it often stays within national borders or leaves for the US in hope of better returns, Lagarde added.
Europe therefore needs to reduce the cost of investing in capital markets and must make the regulatory regime easier for cash to flow to places where it is needed the most.
A solution might be to create an EU-wide regulatory regime on top of the 27 national rules and certain issuers could then opt into this framework.
"To bypass the cumbersome process of regulatory harmonization, we could envisage a 28th regime for issuers of securities," Lagarde said. "They would benefit from a unified corporate and securities law, facilitating cross-border placement, holding and settlement."
Still, that would not solve the problem that few innovative companies set up shop in Europe, partly due to the lack of funding. So Europe must make it easier for investment to flow into venture capital and for banks to fund startups, she said.

Future Investment Initiative: Innovation Is Key to Enhancing Global Human Capabilities