DUBAI: Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Chairman of the Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII Institute), said the global community must learn how to manage crisis and not be managed by it during his opening remarks for the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh.
This year’s three-day FII, with more than 6,000 of the world’s leading decisionmakers, policymakers, investors, entrepreneurs and young leaders in attendance, are looking to shape the future of the global economy with the theme ‘Investing In Humanity: Enabling a New Global Order.’
“In recent decades, industries as varied as healthcare, telecommunication, energy, retailer have unprecedented of change. The global pandemic has accelerated that change,” Al-Rumayyan said in his welcoming speech.
A discussion in the morning will also revisit the IPSOS survey on what people consider as their priorities in life, that was first discussed in New York in September at a special meeting of the FII Forum.
There will also be presentations by Nobel laureates in a session on what frameworks are necessary to better support human progress.
Other opening day sessions include discussion on the new world order, a special video address from Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, and a community discussion among top CEOs including Khaldoon Khalifa Al-Mubarak, managing director and Group CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Catherine MacGregor, CEO of ENGIE, Noel Quinn, Group CEO of HSBC Holdings ; Sara Menker, founder and CEO of GRO Intelligence and David Solomon, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.
As it happens: The following are live updates on the highlights of the opening day at FII 6th edition. (All timings are GMT)
16:00 With its strong economic growth posted after the pandemic, Saudi Arabia is a safe place for investments — especially those focusing on long-term value creation, according to Faisal Al-Ibrahim, the Kingdom’s minister of Economy and Planning.
15:45 Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Tuesday some countries were using their emergency stocks to manipulate markets when their purpose should be to mitigate any shortages of supply.
15:00 Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s minister of investment, tells the froum the energy crisis in Europe will accelerate the oil and gas sector’s transition to renewables and hydrogen.
14:30 Yassir Al-Rumayyan says the world is witnessing the highest inflation rate in 40 years, and it is necessary to use proper data analysis to combat this crisis.
Khalid Al-Falih on Saudi Arabi’s role as a bridge between East and West and North and South: “I think we went too far with globalization, there was no buffer… every supply chain was being run to lowest cost, most efficiency, just-in-time. I think that was a mistake in retrospect, we need to build buffer capacity and diversification.”
Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s minister of investment, on the recent US-Saudi Arabia issue: “It is a blip that we are seeing. In the long term we are solid allies… we are going to get over this recent spat which I think was unwarranted.”
Paul Chan, financial secretary of Hong Kong: “One of the key outcomes from the perspective of Hong Kong [from the Chinese Communist Party] is the reconfirmation of the one country, two systems to be practiced in Hong Kong. It is not for expedience, but part of the constitution of the mainland. Under the one country, two systems Hongkong will continue to practice the capitalist system, common law system, an independent judiciary… from an investor’s perspective Hong Kong will continue to function as a free international financial center.”
Adonis Georgiadis, Greek minister of development: “2023 will be a very challenging year [for Greece]. I don’t want to make predictions because I do not know what will happen in the war in Ukraine. But Greece is well-prepared and we will manage to sustain ourselves even in a challenging year [2023].”
“Nobody is happy with interest rates going up… but our national debt is not a real fear. It is rapidly going down, and continues to go down.”
Ville Skinnari, minister for development cooperation and foreign trade of Finland: “We are well-prepared to all kinds of crisis. When COVID-19 came, we were ready. And of course when it comes to comprehensive security, I think it goes all the way education system, healthcare system, welfare society that we are well-prepared.”
“The NATO approach with Sweden is a natural step further after becoming member of EU and a closer ally of NATO as well. But at the end of the day it is a matter of comprehensive security for the Nordic countries. Of course we can add value when it comes to technologies, when it comes to clean transition.”
“Finland and Saudi Arabia complete each other in many ways, and I think it is really great to see how advanced and ambitious Saudi Arabia and the whole Gulf region is.”
Khalid Al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s minister investment: “The frequency [of disruptions] has accelerated. It is real, it is strong and it is worrying. But I would like to put it in the context of long-term transition that indeed had been accelerating and are converging in a way that is both challenging but opportunistic at the same time, which gives us an opportunity to be pro-active.”
“I think the first transition that is real and is unfolding in front of our eyes is the political insecurity transition. Of course Europe is the ultimate manifestation of this with the war with Ukraine, but we have seen it come to head between China and Taiwan, when the speaker of the US House [of Representatives] was visiting and of course we see this long-term trend of countries and regions building up securities, nationalism verses internationalism. So we have this transition taking place and I believe and it’s going to continue and perhaps to continue accelerate.”
“In addition to this, you have an energy transition that’s inevitable to happen, of course oil and gas fossils and fuels are depletable and we had to do this anyways. But climate changes has pushed us to accelerate it and I think again that crisis in Europe that is only going to accelerate the energy transition towards renewables and hydrogen and other fuels of the future that are being developed as we speak.”
“The third transition is around trade and supply chain, and here I put it in the context with globalization and de-globalization to a certain degree that has started to happen and that will continue to happen.”
“If you think of all of these, each one them is subjecting countries, companies and individuals to an insurance premium. The security transition that we talked about, you know the per unit of GDP almost every country on the planet is spending more on defense, defense spending, technology and industries are becoming core to every country’s industrial today, is no longer a shunned business that something we have to deal with, and it certainly is very, very expensive.”
“These three underpin fourth transition, which is the economic transition. Higher inflation, inflation, and higher premiums that we are paying for all of this is setting the stage for prolonged lower income and growth.”
“But under all of this, there are plenty of opportunities in technology, investment, for countries and hubs to be created to deal with the new world order. I believe Saudi Arabia has taken the steps six years ago. Vision 2030 was designed for the world we live in today and the world we are going to live in 10-15 years from now.”
“If you want the definition of proactive, look at 2016 what did His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled in Vision 2030 and read it and find it out whether rationally deals with the realities of today and I believe it does.”
0934: The New Global Order: View From The State Room plenary session with Khalid Al-Falih, minister of investment of Saudi Arabia, Paul Chan, financial secretary of Hong Kong, Adonis Georgiadis, minister of development of Greece, Ville Skinnari, minister for development cooperation and foreign trade of Finland and George Osborne, partner at Robey Warshaw.
Yasir Alrumayyan: “For the Public Investment Fund we have different mandates. One of the main mandates that we have is to deploy investments in domestic economy, so we said we will deploy $40 billion to $50 billion in annual basis on not only green projects but green field projects that would have an impact on the economy.”
“So we are looking at our bottom line, we are looking at the economic multiplier: what good these projects would do to the economy, what kind of jobs it will create, the quality of these jobs and the quantity of these jobs.”
“Then of course we have the international investments that we do with most of the people around this table and in this room, and again it should have an impact… the impact that I am talking about… is how we can look and continue transition of energy but at the same time not to harm the world.”
“The geopolitical stuff is a fact, that is what is happening right now, today, in the world. So you have to have the right partners, but you have to invest in yourself, going back to the local content that everybody should have. Going back to the kinds and types of wars that human being had historically and still having until today, it is a combination, you cannot take one and versus the other, you should work in the middle.”
Dr. Patrice Motsepe, founder and executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals on aiming for a 65 percent local supply chain: “Every country has to look at what is the best interest of its citizens. There can be no doubt that globalization… to encourage trade, to encourage countries build partnerships that are mutually beneficiable… I think that is very, very important.”
Yasir Alrumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund: “Checking out is not a solution, extreme is not a solution too… Like anything in life, there are always risks right? I think doing one’s part is the most important thing.”
“The problem is globalization and the geo-economics it’s happening now because of weaponizing some of the things we shouldn’t be touching.”
What happened between many countries, by banning certain products and services and these kinds of things instead of the expansion on the economies that we have witnessed in the past two decades. Now we’re going backward instead of moving forward.”
“Every country now has to have its full supply chain, otherwise, it is not gonna work out… let’s say in here in Saudi, we want to have at least a minimum 65 percent of our supply chain in a local content, that is part of the Vision 2030 that we mentioned.
Khaldoon Khalifa Al-Mubarak, managing director and Group CEO, Mubadala Investment Company: “When we are talking about the challenges of the world, three principles come to my mind: transparency, empathy and inclusion.”
“The last three years we have seen two anomalous black swan events that have impacted every country, every person in one way. It’s quite remarkable really, what we’ve seen in the last three years and the repercussions of these two, one being COVID-19 and obviously the war.
“These two events and the repercussions of what we’re seeing from these two events, we’re still I think coming to grips with them. We’re still finding our way out of COVID-19, some countries have not left as you all know. “
“So that reset post-COVID-19 combined with I think this energy crisis, and by the way let’s be clear the energy crisis was happening anyway, it’s just kind of sped up due to the events of this year… Three years ago, if you were in this conference the word hydrocarbon was evil. The energy transition, we all agree [that] climate challenges is the biggest challenge and the energy transition is happening. But I also believe that hydrocarbons are part of the solution.”
“A lot of the challenges we are facing today when it comes to the energy supply are caused by lack of investment created by the inability to many of the financiers, investment institutions, energy companies to invest in critical supply chains that would have in fact helped elevate a big part of problem dealing with today.”
“We cannot deny we are in a very difficult crisis from a global perspective, and in my view it takes in many occasions a crisis to work yourself out of it and to start resetting some of the issues that created the crisis to start with. You have to hit a wall. I think whether we are going to a recession or not from the global perspective there’s no doubt there’s a reset there’s absolutely necessary and I think it’s going to be happening within the next 12 to 24 months.”
0810: The New Global Order: View From The Board Of Changemakers plenary session with Yasir Alrumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund; Khaldoon Khalifa Al-Mubarak, managing director and Group CEO, Mubadala Investment Company; Ray Dalio, founder, CIO Mentor and member of the board of Bridgewater Associates; Catherine MacGregor, CEO of ENGIE; David Solomon, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs; Dr. Patrice Motsepe, founder and executive chairman of African Rainbow Minerals; Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Blackstone.
0755: Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, gives his special video address.
“The world is passing through changes unseen in human history. I shall mention four transformative transitions: energy transition – from fossil to renewable; technology transition – from physical to digital; economic transition – from West to East and demographic transition – from aging nations to young nations.”
“These transitions have set the stage for a new global order. In each of these transitions we see Saudi Arabia and India along with other nations in the East and Global South have been a driving force.”
“The transition from fossil fuel to renewable cannot and will not happen suddenly or in a short time.”
“Investments in oil and gas should not continue to fall. If that happens it will impact global growth, global economy and eventually the well-being of the people.”
0711: Ray Dalio, founder, CIO Mentor and member of the board of Bridgewater Associates, sits down with CNN anchor Richard Quest on the plenary session ‘Welcome To The New Global Order.’
“About five years ago there were three major things that were happening in our lifetime that have not happened before… those three basic things were the amount of printing of money and the creation of debt, the amount of internal conflict and international conflict.”
“We are creating unsound finances because we print a lot of money. We want to spend more money than we have. It is like a human being, same for government. The only difference between a human being and government is they print money.”
“I worry how about how we are with each other. Problems always exist, but in this world where there is great domestic conflict, and there is great international conflict because of these differences. History has shown these patterns.”
“We are creating unsound finances because we print a lot of money. We want to spend more money than we have. It is like a human being, same for government. The only difference between a human being and government is they print money.”
“I worry how about how we are with each other. Problems always exist, but in this world where there is great domestic conflict, and there is great international conflict because of these differences. History has shown these patterns.”
0708: Kailash Satyarthi, founder of Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for 2014: “We all say children are our future, but are we really investing in that future? Are we really investing in childhood? Everything can wait, but not the childhood.”
“Today I am speaking in behalf of millions of children who don’t have their childhood, they are put into slavery and prostitution and so on. So first of all we have to invest in childhood if we are investing in the future.”
“We have to get a fair share for children… a fair share in budget allocation, a fair share in policies and fair share in social protection programs.”
“What is needed is additional $53 billion dollars to ensure education, healthcare and protection for children in all low-income countries… along with protection for new mothers.”
“If we have to think of a new world order which is based on humanity, then have to invest in humanity, invest in children to begin with.”
“We have to globalize compassion… for that we have to inculcate compassionate leadership in businesses, in society, in politics.”
0700: Dasho Tshering Tobgay, former prime minister of Bhutan: “Where would I invest in, to secure humanity? I would invest in the world because we need a viable place to live in for our future… as an environmentalist I have been passionate about this.”
“I have gone through the priorities report… and there environment, global warming comes at a distant number 8. I was surprised but it gave me hope also. What it told me is you have to address the current needs of the people if you want to take care of climate change, fight climate change.”
“You can’t just expect everybody to become environmentalists if their immediate needs are not met.”
“If we can achieve a certain level of prosperity, then we, all of us, would be more aligned towards fighting climate change.”
“The other reason for hope… is we have the means for common prosperity.”
0650: Leymah Roberta Gbowee: “We should begin to reduce the gap in humanitarian financing.”
“We live in a time where we’ve seen all kinds of innovation. Robots can talk, we don’t need people to do some of the things … in order for us to really begin to get to where really need to get to is to start to do realignment … and some of the basic realignment we can do is to put money where our mouths are,” the 2011 Nobel laureate said.
“That kind of investment also means investing in local communities… you have to go back to the communities where you have the needs, nothing is going there, nothing is trickling.”
0645: Discussions for the opening plenary ‘Our Humanity, Our Priority: A Conversation Among Nobel Laureates’ with Dasho Tshering Tobgay, former prime minister of Bhutan; Leymah Roberta Gbowee, the founder and president of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for 2011 and Kailash Satyarthi, founder of Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate 2014 as speakers.
0635: Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of the Public Investment Fund and Chairman of the Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII Institute), makes his opening remarks.
“Just last month at the FII Priority Summit in New York, we learned that key issues like the cost of living, poverty and unemployment are top concerns across 13 countries. We need to learn how to manage crisis and not to be managed by crisis,” Al-Rumayyan said. “In recent decades, industries as varied as healthcare, telecommunication, energy, retailer have unprecedented of change. The global pandemic has accelerated that change,” he said in his speech.
“We can deal with global problems like climate change through data driven approach,” Al-Rumayyan added, noting that PIF was the first sovereign wealth fund to issue green bonds.
“We cannot do it all alone as investors and entrepreneurs,” the FII Institute chairman said. “We must create quality jobs in a knowledge-based economy … the right partnership will enable us to fulfill our ambitions over the long term.”
“The risk can seem very significant but we can overcome these challenges if we acted like one, through partnerships that I’d like to see here in the FII. The new global order will be set by the discussions we have here in the FII.”
0633: Richard Attias, CEO of FII Initiative, FII 2022 is one of the world’s first carbon-neutral event as part of “our commitment of sustainability.” “Making an impact on humanity is the very reason we are all here today. Our world is facing unprecedented threats but it is also a unique time of new opportunities. We are on the road to a new global order,” he said.
0618: Part of the opening proceedings for the Future Investment Initiative this year features a video presentation of the current global issues including war, famine and environmental degradation.
0608: Attendees get settled as the Future Investment Initiative opening events are about to start.
