COFIDES will organize the next annual meeting of the main international forum of sovereign funds

The IFSWF is a global network made up of nearly 50 sovereign wealth funds from around the world.

The appointment of COFIDES as organizer of the next annual meeting of the IFSWF highlights the growing institutional role that the Company is assuming at an international level.

---

 

The president and CEO of COFIDES, José Luis Curbelo and Miguel Tiana, have participated in the 14th annual meeting of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF), held in Baku (Azerbaijan) on November 15th and 16th.

 

The participants have examined the main challenges that these institutions currently face derived, among other factors, from the current economic and geopolitical situation, and have also discussed how to strengthen the contribution of their investments to sustainable development. Likewise, at said meeting it was agreed to appoint COFIDES as host of the next edition of the event.

 

El IFSWF It is a global network made up of nearly 50 sovereign funds from around the world. It has members from the five continents and is configured as a unique platform for cooperation and exchange of information at an international level between this type of institutions. An element that characterizes the members of the network is compliance with the Principles of Santiago relating to the requirement of transparency and good governance on the part of both the funds individually and the investments in which they participate.

 

Sovereign funds are leading actors in international direct investment flows with a long-term perspective. In 2021, its volume of investment reached 71.600 billion US dollars and was preferably directed to priority sectors for sustainable development at a global level, such as infrastructure, renewable energies or digital transformation.

 

The 15th annual meeting will be held in Madrid in October 2023, coinciding with the Spanish presidency of the European Union

 

El president and CEO of COFIDES, José Luis Curbelo, has stated that “it is very relevant that COFIDES, and therefore Spain, has been designated as organizers of the next meeting of this network, which brings together the main global sovereign funds. With this passing of the baton at COFIDES we get to work to host this meeting in our country next fall, which will be a key milestone for the company and will allow us to promote investment flows that contribute to the digital and sustainable transformation of our economy.”

 

In fact, he recalled that “investments by sovereign financial institutions generate opportunities of enormous interest and complementarity for national economic policies.” He has also highlighted the possibilities of public-private co-investment in all those sectors identified as priorities in the Spanish Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience. “COFIDES, as a public entity of reference in the management of financial instruments, is a key partner for the efficient channeling of this type of resources in favor of the competitiveness of the productive economy of our country.”

 

Under the title “Mobilize capital for change”, this year's meeting has been a unique opportunity for the members of IFSWF to debate the most significant topics of the current investment landscape. Among the issues addressed are rising inflation, deglobalization, environmental, social and governance issues (ESG) and the digitalization of the investment process and the financial landscape. The leaders of most of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds have been joined by representatives of IFWSF's main private sector partners and the meeting's hosts, the State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), as well as representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.