UAE’s Al Marri plays ‘father of the bride’ at Investopia
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Surveying the thousands of investors and business leaders rubbing shoulders at the Investopia conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri said he felt like “the father of the bride” at a wedding. “I just want to make sure everyone is happy and well fed,” he told The Circuit’s Kelsey Warner this morning.
Keeping participants comfortable at the third edition of Investopia, which the Minister chairs, is a fairly light lift, with the St. Regis resort on Saadiyat Island offering a backdrop of swaying palm trees and turquoise waters.
Engaging them is another matter as the confab aims to also drive investment into fast-growing sectors like technology, capital markets and tourism to the UAE.
Al Marri has said that by the 2030s, the UAE will “take the number one position globally in the development of proactive legislation for new economic sectors.”
Funds that manage a total of more than $500 billion in assets are attending, according to organizers. Top of mind and regularly popping up in conversation for the largely American crowd are the implications of an election year in the U.S. and the direction of interest rates.
Al Marri, for his part, expressed his desire for lower rates to spur investment: “There will be a movement of capital that will [boost] investments into new areas and move the economy forward. So we hope that can happen by this year,” he said.
Mubadala’s Al Mubarak says sovereign funds taking the lead
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates – Kicking off the UAE’s annual Investopia conference on Wednesday, Mubadala chief Khaldoon Al Mubarak pointed to the more active stance that the country’s sovereign wealth funds are taking in the global investment landscape.
“Sovereign funds now have the responsibility and opportunity to go from asset allocators to enablers of global progress,” the Managing Director and Group CEO of Abu Dhabi’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund said. Al Mubarak noted that the emirate’s sovereign funds — Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and ADQ — are among the world’s top 10 most active sovereign investors in 2023, which he said, “speaks to the momentum that is building over here.”
Mubadala plans to invest more in the U.S. and has increased its long-term allocations for Asia “in line with megatrends and demographics, including “Japan, China, Korea and, of course, India,” Al Mubarak said.
On the domestic front, UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq said in his opening remarks that the ministry is working to better integrate the seven disparate emirates that make up the country. “In the UAE, each emirate has its own strength. We’re now working to enable those emirates to integrate and complement each other to build economic clusters that supercharge the whole economy.”
Thousands of investors have flocked to the third edition of Investopia, a marquee event for the government’s “Projects of the 50” initiative, first announced in 2021. The UAE aims to build the world’s most innovative economy in collaboration with the global investment community. Funds that manage a total of more than $500 billion in assets are attending, according to organizers.
Slated to speak during the two-day conference are Adam Goldstein, Founder and CEO of aviation startup Archer; Eric Cantor, General Manager and Vice Chairman of Moelis; Antonio González, Founder and CEO of Sunset Hospitality Group; Nathan Sheets, Global Chief Economist at Citi; Giorgio Furlani, CEO of AC Milan; Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, Head of CIO Equities at UBS and Gabrielle Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Manna Tree.
