2018 was a year of exceptional challenge and success for the Division on Investment and Enterprise.

The World Investment Forum 2018 was by all accounts the most successful, highest profile event to be hosted by International Geneva over the past decade.

The WIF 2018 cemented the Forum’s position as the preeminent global investment development stakeholder platform for addressing key and emerging issues. The Forum – with more than 70 sessions – convened 6,000 representatives from public, private, civil society and academic spheres, representing 150 countries, including 11 Heads of State, over 50 ministers, 70 parliamentarians, alongside 1,700 private sector representatives. Attendance of this scope and magnitude confirms the need for a forum of this kind and this was echoed by the call by ambassadors for the Division to create a roundtable that can continue the forum’s work to channel investment-led solutions to the SDGs in between WIF years – a call that was endorsed by the 10th Commission on Investment and Enterprise in December 2018.

The Division’s dedication to advance SDG-oriented outcomes forms and integral part of the Division’s work programme and is centred around its core package of frameworks to support investment in sustainable development. To date, six key policy instruments have successfully been developed that underpin our efforts to advance sustainable development: the Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development (IPFSD), the Road Map for IIA Reform, the Action Plan for in Investing in the SDGs , the Global Action Menu for Investment Facilitation , the Entrepreneurship Policy Framework and the Accounting Development Tool.

In this new era of globalization and industrialization, the 2018 World Investment Report on Investment and New Industrial Policies broke new ground as we delved into the dynamics of the fourth industrial revolution, development strategies and economic transformation. Extensive media coverage of the Report and compliments from the TDB reconfirmed the relevance and quality of the WIR. Throughout 2018, we further explored trends and topical issues in the Global Investment Trends Monitor and in the revamped Transnational Corporations Journal . We continuously receive testimony of the relevance of this work for global, regional and national policymaking.

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