CAIRO: The World Investment Forum, currently held in Qatar, on the sidelines of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has urged sovereign wealth funds (SWF) worth an estimated $5 trillion to invest in developing countries, even as they seek the right climate and demand steps against corruption. Officials from developing countries confirmed in a debate that several African nations complained the level of investment inflows to the continent was too low. “We have created a very conducive environment for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) but so far we have not seen any flow,” Rwanda's trade and industry minister, Francois Kanimba, told the session. Hussein al-Abdulla, a board member of Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the Gulf state's sovereign wealth fund, said the right environment needs to be created for foreign investments to start flowing. Abdulla said corruption in Africa is a major obstacle for the flow of foreign investments and said QIA had had to withdraw from investment opportunities because of corruption. “We are willing to invest but governments have to create the right economic policies to attract investors … we should not differentiate between SWFs and private investors,” he added. UNCTAD currently is holding its new session, which takes place in a different country every four year, in Qatar. Lots of world president's attend the current session, especially developing countries leaders, as they seek for new investments in their countries. Worthy to mention that SWFs, held mostly by oil-rich countries in addition to China, Singapore and Hong Kong and others, have traditionally preferred to invest in big corporations and assets in the West for risk considerations. The assets of SWFs are only a quarter of the $20 trillion world pension funds.
