Investment and enterprise for development

The Investment, Enterprise and Development Commission,

Acknowledging the contribution of the UNCTAD programmes on investment and enterprise and on science, technology and innovation to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals,

                         Investment and enterprise for development

1. Expresses its satisfaction with the presentation by the UNCTAD secretariat of the most recent global trends and policies in the area of investment for development, in particular through its Sustainable Development Goals investment trends monitor and its Guidance on Core Indicators for Entity Reporting on Contribution Towards Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals; and calls on the secretariat to continue reporting on and monitoring these trends and their impact on development;
    
2. Notes with concern that the underlying foreign direct investment trends remain weak, affecting the growth of global value chains, and the persistence of significant risk factors; and further notes that the levels of investment required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals remain insufficient and that progress, as well as monitoring capacity, remain uneven across the 10 Sustainable Development Goals-relevant sectors identified by UNCTAD;
3. Stresses the importance of both public and private investment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the role of investment promotion agencies and outward investment agencies, in support of national investment strategies; and welcomes new forms of partnership, innovative financing models, corporate behaviour and business mindsets that are conducive to development;
    
4. Commends the in-depth policy research and analysis conducted by the UNCTAD secretariat on investment and enterprise development and its innovative work on emerging issues, including the World Investment Report; and looks forward to the report in 2020, which will mark its thirtieth anniversary, and its widest dissemination;
    
5. Requests the UNCTAD secretariat to continue its support for capacity-building on strategies, policies, tools and practices to promote investment and enterprise for development, including through the UNCTAD Investment Policy Framework for Sustainable Development, Entrepreneurship Policy Framework and other UNCTAD policy packages, and to report to member States at its next session on the progress achieved;
    
6. Acknowledges the importance of the investment policy reviews, including regional reviews, and the follow-up and review of implementation as an essential tool to support countries’ progress towards sustainable development; congratulates Armenia and Chad for the successful presentation of their investment policy reviews; and welcomes participation by the private sector in these presentations;
    
7. Requests the UNCTAD secretariat to continue to present the investment policy reviews in an intergovernmental context to further the exchange of best practices; and calls on partner countries to financially support this programme;
    
8. Commends the UNCTAD programme on international investment agreements for its assistance and valuable work in the context of a sustainable development-oriented reform; and requests UNCTAD to continue to monitor phase 2 of international investment agreement reform, working towards coherence in the modernization process of the international investment regime, and to further develop tools and guidelines to operationalize policy options for international investment agreement reform in support of the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals;
    
9. Recognizes the rapid development taking place in the way international investment agreements are drafted; recognizes the role played by UNCTAD and the Division on Investment and Enterprise; and reaffirms the right of States to regulate within their territory to achieve legitimate policy objectives subject to international obligations;
    
10. Underscores the important role of the ambassadors round table on investing in the Sustainable Development Goals as a platform for connecting all Geneva-based international organizations, the private sector and civil society on the matter of Sustainable Development Goals financing and investment; and encourages UNCTAD to continue to hold round tables in future;
     
11. Encourages the UNCTAD secretariat to continue to support the exchange and dissemination of best practices in investment promotion, including through the awards for promoting investment in the Sustainable Development Goals;
     
12. Commends UNCTAD for the support to the negotiations of phase 2 of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, in particular regarding the protocol on investment; and encourages the UNCTAD secretariat to continue its work in this context;
     
13. Acknowledges the relevance of the work of UNCTAD on enterprise development and entrepreneurship policies in pursuit of sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the policy packages on entrepreneurship policies; and recommends their widest dissemination as a contribution to policy formulation and capacity-building, including through the Empretec programme;
     
14. Congratulates the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting on its thirty-sixth session; and invites the UNCTAD secretariat to continue the good practices of the deliberations of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts as a useful forum for organizations to provide comparable baseline data on their contributions to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals;