His Excellency Mr. António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, expected that the artificial intelligence and technology sectors would contribute to shaping global economies and production and create important opportunities to advance sustainable development, but he called for encouraging the private sector to push investments in developing countries.
Guterres said, during the ninth edition of the World Investment Forum 2026, that the world is witnessing many global challenges, and that the forum, while examining the issue of investment in the future, emphasizes the indisputable fact that investment is an expression of confidence that the future can be better.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations added, in a message read on his behalf by Ms. Nan Lee Collins, Director of the Investment and Institutions Division of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), that artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced technology, and the precious metals sector represent a third of investments in new fields around the world, and these sectors are expected to shape global economies and production and create important opportunities to advance sustainable development, but a small portion of this investment reaches the least developed, low-income and low-income countries.
He stressed that the forum is an opportunity to encourage the private sector to invest in developing countries, especially in renewable energy, technology and precious metals, which creates an opportunity for these communities to benefit from. It is also an opportunity to show global support for the commitments made during the past year in Seville in support of development and investment.
He expressed his hope that the forum would lead to the necessary synergy, partnerships and ambitions and transform technological capabilities into an era of prosperity for the benefit of all.