Attracting Investment in the Digital Ecosystem to Advance the SDGs: Policy and Strategy Recommendations

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While most discussions on the digital ecosystem focus on technology development, the required governance and ethical principles, understanding where the investment goes in the digital world is often understudied. The 2025 World Investment Report focused on international investment in the digital economy. It analysed key trends, drivers and determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) in this rapidly evolving sector. Drawing on global policy developments, including the experiences of 15 developing countries that have successfully attracted FDI in the digital economy, the report presented specific recommendations to promote and leverage international investment in digital sectors. These recommendations aim to enhance the digital economy’s contribution to national development objectives, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To support dissemination and implementation of the report’s findings, the Investment Policy Reviews Section of UNCTAD is organizing a two-hour workshop. Following an introduction which will present key statistics on investment in the digital economy, the session will address critical policy areas – ranging from FDI-specific strategies to broader legal provisions that influence foreign investors’ decisions to enter and operate in digital markets.

• Shaping the foundations. This part will cover the strategic and policy underpinnings of investment in the digital economy, including national digital strategies and critical regulatory areas such as data governance, intellectual property and competition policy.
• Fostering Impact. This second part of the session will address how to mitigate potential negative impacts of FDI – particularly in areas like taxation, incentives and the environment – while enhancing its positive effects, such as the development of skills and linkages.
• Stimulating Investment. The final part will focus on enabling policies that attract investment, including openness to FDI, investment facilitation and promotion strategies.

Speakers

Kiyoshi Adachi

Kiyoshi Adachi is a Legal Officer with the Investment Policy Reviews Section of the Division on Investment and Enterprise at the Geneva-based United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where he provides research, analysis and policy recommendations on issues related to the integrated treatment of investment and related development issues, including the SDGs. Prior to joining UNCTAD in 2002, he worked with the United Nations in both New York and Vienna, and as a lawyer with an international law firm in Tokyo. In the span of his career of 30 years, he has numerous publications related to preferential trade and investment agreements and over 15 years of experience in various aspects of international regulation of the pharmaceutical/life sciences industry, including on relevant intellectual property issues, access and benefit sharing of genetic resources and the UN drug control conventions.

Mr. Adachi holds a Juris Doctor from the UCLA School of Law in Los Angeles and is admitted to the bars of Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, USA. He also has a Master of Public Administration concentrating in development management from the American University in Washington, D.C. and a Bachelor’s degree in Government and Asian Studies from Dartmouth College. In addition to his duties at the UN, Mr. Adachi teaches International Law at Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan.

Helena Afonso

Helena Afonso is an Economic Affairs Officer with the Investment Policy Reviews Section of the Division on Investment and Enterprise at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. She is an economic researcher working on investment policy, foreign direct investment and investment promotion and facilitation, frequently participating in technical missions for capacity building in developing regions. Ms. Afonso has over a decade of experience in economic research and policy analysis on international trade and development with international organizations in Africa, Europe and the United States. She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in Economics focusing on development from Nova School of Business and Economics in Lisbon, Portugal and publications in specialized journals such as the Journal of African Trade and the Journal of Policy Modelling.

Georgina Curto Rex / Moderator

Georgina Curto Rex is a Senior AI Researcher and Team Lead at the United Nations University Institute in Macau. Previously, she was an Assistant Research Professor at the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society and a Postdoc at the ND-IBM Technology Ethics Lab, University of Notre Dame. She has the honor of co-chairing the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) Symposia in the Global South.

Focusing on issues of poverty mitigation, fairness, and inclusion, she works on the design of AI socio-technical systems that provide new insights to counteract inequality and advance interdisciplinary research towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Her research contributes to the state of the art in AI, specifically in Natural Language Processing, Agent-Based Modeling, Social Networks, and Machine Learning, with the ultimate goal of offering insights for innovative interventions to local and global challenges. Some of her research lines have been recognized with awards such as Best AI for Good Project at the 31st International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI'22) and Outstanding Paper at the ACL (Association for Computational Linguistics) within the 7th Workshop on Online Abuse and Harms.

Agenda

Participation

The session is designed for policymakers and researchers. It will be delivered in English by UNCTAD staff free of charge. 

Contact: Kiyoshi Adachi, Legal Officer, UNCTAD (kiyoshi.adachi@un.org)

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