91茄子

Excellencies,
Distinguished Colleagues,

I am very pleased to welcome you to this side event organized by my Office, OHRLLS, together with the Governments of Guinea-Bissau and Portugal - and with support from AOSIS. 

We meet today to help turn ambition into action by mobilizing the partnerships, enterprises and investments needed to deliver for Small Island Developing States.
The Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS provides a clear ten-year roadmap towards resilient prosperity.

Yet the value of any international agreement lies in what it changes: whether it creates jobs, expands opportunity, strengthens resilience, and improves people’s lives on the ground.

That is the challenge before us; moving from commitment to delivery.
SIDS are already leading.

They are advancing renewable energy, building resilient tourism, developing digital services, creating ocean-based industries, and growing local enterprises.

But too many good ideas remain unfunded.

Too many viable projects remain unseen.
Too many island entrepreneurs remain locked out of markets and finance.

The barriers are well known: small markets, high transaction costs, constrained access to capital and limited visibility among investors.

For AIS SIDS, these barriers are compounded by geography.

The region is highly diverse, spanning different oceans, languages, income levels and development contexts.

This poses challenges for coordination, pooling capacity, aggregating opportunities, and presenting investment-ready projects at scale.

Across SIDS, the investment numbers reveal the scale of the challenge.

In 2024, SIDS accounted for around 0.6% of global foreign direct investment flows.

This gap cannot be closed by governments alone.

The private sector brings capital, technology, expertise, innovation, supply chains and the ability to bring solutions to scale. 

It is also an engine of employment and livelihoods in SIDS, particularly through micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Globally, SMEs represent around 90% of businesses and account for more than half of employment. Their importance is even more pronounced in small island economies: in Maldives, for example, MSMEs account for approximately 94% of all registered businesses. Supporting local enterprises is therefore essential to creating jobs, retaining talent, diversifying economies and strengthening resilience.
But this support must also be inclusive.

More than 70% of women-led businesses in developing economies cannot obtain the capital they need, resulting in a shortfall of $300 billion.
 Inclusivity also means recognizing Indigenous Peoples and local communities as entrepreneurs, innovators and trading partners. Traditional knowledge, cultural expressions and community-based production can generate distinctive opportunities in areas ranging from food, fisheries and agriculture to fashion, wellness, tourism and biodiversity-based industries.

The ABAS recognizes the need to strengthen private sector support for implementation.
It calls for enabling business environments.

It calls for stronger institutions and regulatory frameworks.

It calls for support for MSMEs, entrepreneurs and cooperatives.

And it calls for public-private partnerships.
 The SIDS Global Business Network Forum, being organized by my Office together with the Government of Maldives and the Government of Antigua and Barbuda from 23 to 25 August in Malé, is designed to answer that call.

As the Forum will take place in the AIS region, it will also provide a practical platform to strengthen regional coordination, bring together investment opportunities and increase their visibility among partners and investors.
Allow me to highlight three areas where we expect the Forum to make a difference.

First, is visibility. 

Through curated project showcases, an MSME Marketplace, investor-government engagement and deal rooms, the Forum will bring island-led solutions directly before potential partners and investors.
Second, is readiness.

Discussions will address access to finance, project preparation, enabling policy and regulatory environments, and the needs of MSMEs, including women- and youth-led companies.

 And the third point, is follow through. 

The Forum will connect governments, businesses, investors and development partners around concrete opportunities, identify investment and partnership leads, and help advance them beyond the event.

 It will also enable AIS SIDS to draw on lessons from other SIDS regions including regional private sector support institutions such as Pacific Trade Invest and the Caribbean Export Development Agency - and to explore proven approaches to enterprise development, trade promotion and investment facilitation that can be adapted to the AIS context.

Indeed, a defining moment will be the launch of the Island Investment Forum, or IIF, under the SIDS Centre of Excellence.
Alongside the GBN Forum, the IIF will add a dedicated investment track focusing on project visibility, investor engagement, deal facilitation and sustained follow-up.

Excellencies,

The ABAS will not only be judged by the strength of its language.
It will be judged by what it delivers.

By the enterprises we strengthen.

By the investments we mobilize.

By the jobs we create.

And by the partnerships we sustain.

We look forward to welcoming your government representatives, business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors.
Let us come ready to connect.

Ready to invest.

[And] Ready to deliver.

I thank you.