Dr. Mohieldin Holds Guest Lecture at the Prince Saud Al-Faisal Institute for Diplomatic Studies

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin presented a lecture titled "Beyond the Headlines of 'Soft Landing' and Uneven Growth: Challenges of Progress and Sustainable Development in a Fragmented World" at the Prince Saud Al-Faisal Institute for Diplomatic Studies in Riyadh. The lecture tackled the ongoing "development paradox" facing emerging markets and developing economies today, as they contend with sluggish growth, stubborn inflation and rising debt distress in an increasingly fragmented world. Over the past five years, the world has experienced its worst period of growth in three decades, with debt distress rising at unprecedented levels across the developing world even as net capital flows to developing economies further deteriorate.

Against this backdrop, Dr. Mohieldin identified three main dimensions of cooperation conducive to reversing the trend: investment, trade and migration. On foreign direct investment (FDI), he noted that while FDI inflows to emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs) have grown in absolute terms, they have declined both as a share of gross fixed capital formation and of GDP, and the number of greenfield projects in EMDEs has not significantly increased over the past 20 years.

On trade, Dr. Mohieldin highlighted that increased participation in global trade remains a potent engine for growth and poverty reduction — but while trade has grown and trade costs have generally fallen, there has been a worrying reversal, with increased protectionism in certain sectors and regions, notably the ongoing trade competition between the United States and China and the imminent operationalization of the EU's new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

Finally, on migration, he showcased the recovery in migrant flows to OECD countries after the pandemic, and the growing reliance of migrant-exporting countries on remittances as official development assistance and FDI wane as sources of foreign-currency income.