Middle East Investment
Dubai opens a three day investment congress with UAE foreign investment at a record level
By Staff Writer | 5 September 2026
The fifteenth AIM Congress runs from 7 to 9 September at the Dubai World Trade Centre, with UAE inward investment reported at 177.3 billion dirhams for 2025 and cumulative stock at 1.171 trillion dirhams at the end of that year.
The fifteenth edition of the AIM Congress opens on Monday 7 September 2026 at the Dubai World Trade Centre and runs to Wednesday 9 September. It brings together government officials, institutional investors, investment promotion agencies, development finance institutions, sovereign wealth funds and technology companies, with an agenda of investment destination forums, roundtables, exhibitions, workshops, pitch competitions and networking sessions.
The 2025 edition drew 15,831 participants from 181 countries, with 1,385 speakers across 431 sessions.
The figures it opens on
Foreign direct investment into the UAE reached 177.3 billion dirhams in 2025, placing the country ninth in the world on figures from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as cited by the congress organisers. That is a fourth consecutive record year, and cumulative inward investment stock stood at 1.171 trillion dirhams at the end of 2025.
On new greenfield projects, meaning investment that builds something rather than buying an existing business, the country held second place worldwide for a third consecutive year, attracting 1,562 projects. Those projects accounted for 38 per cent of greenfield project capital expenditure across the Middle East.
The greenfield share is the number worth carrying away. Thirty eight per cent of regional greenfield capital expenditure in one country is a pipeline figure, not a stock market figure, and it lands on design teams, contractors and supply chains before it lands anywhere else.
Trade has moved with it. Non-oil foreign trade reached 1.937 trillion dirhams in the first half of 2026, up 13.1 per cent on the same period a year earlier, and non-oil exports reached 452.8 billion dirhams, an increase of 23.9 per cent.
The record momentum behind this year's Congress reflects a broader shift in how global capital views the UAE, not simply as a destination for investment, but as a partner in shaping where the next generation of growth will come from.
Dawood Al Shezawi, Chairman of the AIM Global Foundation
How the programme is arranged
This year's theme is "Reshaping Global Prosperity: Unlocking New Investment Pathways Towards a Sustainable and Inclusive Future", and the programme is organised around three pillars: Global Markets, Future Economies and NexGen. Sessions are to cover global capital flows, emerging markets, technology, sustainability and cross-border investment.
What has not been published
No sector breakdown of the 2025 inward investment figure has been released, so the share attributable to construction, real estate or infrastructure cannot be stated from what is public. Nor has the number of greenfield projects been split by sector or by emirate, and no participant or exhibitor count has been published for this year's edition against last year's 15,831. A firm reading the greenfield share as a demand signal should treat it as a regional aggregate until those splits appear.