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The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to host the 7th biennial UNCTAD World Investment Forum (WIF) and the first-ever Asian e-Commerce Week. According to a statement released on Monday, the two events will hold simultaneously in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital, on December 6-10.

UNCTAD said the agreement was signed last week between UNCTAD’s Secretary-General, Mukhisa Kituyi, and UAE’s Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Saleh.

The WIF is the leading global platform for investment and development. The UN agency said the WIF 2020 will seek to accelerate actions to align international investment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  

The UN and other multilateral organisations are driving the global coalitions to mobilise the required resources from governments, civil society, the private sector to address the world’s social and environmental challenges. At least $60 trillion is required from now until 2050 to make the transition to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies.

“At the onset of what UN Secretary-General António Guterres has declared the decade of action on Agenda 2030, more investment must be mobilized into areas of greatest need to ensure inclusive prosperity,” said Kituyi. “I thank the United Arab Emirates for offering to host this important forum.”

The biennial WIF is expected to produce strategies to address global investment and development challenges, facilitate networking between global leaders in business and politics, and stimulate public and private action on investment for sustainable development.

"The forum is a unique platform to facilitate policymaking and joint action that is necessary to stimulate investments in development areas,” Al Saleh said. “The forum will help advance an action-oriented, solutions-driven policy agenda, that will bring the SDGs to fruition.”

During the same week of the WIF 2020, the maiden edition of Asia eCommerce Week will also hold in Abu Dhabi. UNCTAD’s eCommerce Weeks are designed to explore business opportunities and challenges associated with the digital economy, the UN agency said.

The Asia eCommerce Week, the second regional event ever, will offer a targeted programme for policymakers and other stakeholders to identify innovative ways to shape the digital economy and better harness the increased digitalization of economies, with a specific focus on Asia and the Pacific.

The regional events are off-shoots of the annual eCommerce Week hosted by UNCTAD in Switzerland. The first-ever regional eCommerce Week was the Africa eCommerce Week held in Nairobi, Kenya, in December 2018.