AIM Congress 2026 Set for September as UAE FDI and Non-Oil Trade Hit Records

For its 15th edition, AIM Congress will run from September 7 to 9, 2026, at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, is the patron of the event. The title chosen for the gathering is “Reshaping Global Prosperity: Unlocking New Investment Pathways Towards a Sustainable and Inclusive Future.”

Reshaping Global Prosperity: Unlocking New Investment Pathways Towards a Sustainable and Inclusive Future.

The event is organised around three pillars: Global Markets, Future Economies, and NexGen. Those pillars support a programme that covers global capital flows, emerging-market strategy, technological innovation, sustainability frameworks, and cross-border economic opportunity. This edition opens with figures that make such topics concrete. The World Investment Report 2026 from UNCTAD put FDI inflows into the UAE at AED 177.3 billion in 2025. Non-oil foreign trade reached AED 1.937 trillion in the first half of 2026. Both figures are historic highs for the country.

Dawood Al Shezawi, chairman of AIM Global Foundation, said global capital now sees the UAE as a partner in shaping future growth, not simply as an investment destination. He said the record momentum behind AIM Congress reflects a wider shift in that view. Al Shezawi also tied the size of the congress to the scale of opportunity in the UAE. The next three days, he said, need to be about converting that momentum into tangible pathways.

The congress will bring together development finance institutions, investment promotion agencies, sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors, technology companies, and government representatives. The schedule is a mix of conferences, investment destination forums, roundtables, exhibitions, workshops, pitch competitions, awards ceremonies, side events, and networking sessions.

The 2025 edition sets a reference point. That event drew 15,831 participants from 181 countries and featured 1,385 speakers across 431 sessions. It also produced hundreds of memoranda of understanding. For a three-day conference, those MOUs are the clearest measure that event meetings can turn into commitments.

AIM Congress now sits inside a broader shift in the UAE economy, one visible in non-oil trade data and in the attention of sovereign funds and institutional investors. The event gives those groups a place to test the UAE’s investment pitch against the actual numbers. Last year’s MOUs suggest the pitch holds, and this year’s edition will have fresh records to point to.