It is my great pleasure to welcome you to this Showcase of the Commonwealth Investment Network.
We meet at a special moment our shared Commonwealth experience.
During Commonwealth Week, we reflect on the ties that bind us together: our shared values, our shared history, and our shared commitment to building a more prosperous future for all our people. This year’s theme — “Unlocking opportunities together for a prosperous Commonwealth” — could not be more fitting. Because that is precisely what brings us here today.
In a world where economic uncertainty is rising, where investment flows are increasingly concentrated, and where small and vulnerable economies face ever greater barriers to capital, the question before us is simple: How do we unlock opportunity — together? The Commonwealth Investment Network is part of that answer.
Launched by our Heads of Government at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa in 2024, the Network was created with a clear purpose: to connect governments, investors, technical partners and businesses across the Commonwealth to unlock investment opportunities – particularly in our Small Island Developing States.
It reflects a simple but powerful idea. That when the Commonwealth’s unique networks of trust, expertise and partnership are mobilised effectively, we can turn shared values into shared prosperity.
Since its creation, the Commonwealth Investment Network has moved rapidly from vision to delivery. Working across the Caribbean and Pacific, it has begun to strengthen investment pipelines, support investment promotion agencies, facilitate knowledge exchange, and help businesses transform promising ideas into bankable projects.
I would like to acknowledge the generous and catalytic support of the United Kingdom Government, whose early investment has helped turn this initiative from an idea into a functioning platform delivering real opportunities. But today is not simply about what has been built. It is about what can now be unlocked.
And it is fitting that we are gathered here in London – one of the world’s great financial centres. Within a few streets of this room sit institutions that deploy billions of dollars of capital every year: venture funds, development finance institutions, institutional investors and global financial actors.
Today, the Commonwealth Investment Network brings different worlds together. Governments. Entrepreneurs. Investors. Development partners. All focused on one shared task: mobilising investment that builds resilient, sustainable economies across the Commonwealth. Nowhere is this more important than in our Small Island Developing States.
These countries stand on the frontline of climate change. They face rising debt burdens and escalating climate risks. Yet they are also home to extraordinary ingenuity, innovation and entrepreneurial energy. The challenge they face is not a lack of ideas. It is a lack of access. Access to capital. Access to expertise. Access to the global networks that transform potential into investment.
The Commonwealth Investment Network exists to close that gap. And today we see the first fruits of that work.
This afternoon, seven pioneering enterprises from Fiji, Grenada, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu will present their projects to investors and partners. They operate across sectors that matter deeply for the future of our economies — renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, waste management, land restoration and the blue economy.
These businesses are rooted in their communities, but their ambition is global. They represent the kind of climate-positive, growthoriented enterprises that will shape the economies of the future. To the entrepreneurs with us today — Belmont Estate, BildBeta, Eagle Vetiver Systems, Green Feeds, OraSoil, RecycleCorp and SarGas — you demonstrate what is possible when innovation meets opportunity. And to the investors in the room, I say this clearly: The opportunity is real.
More than 130 businesses from across 15 Commonwealth small states applied to participate in this accelerator programme. This remarkable level of interest reveals two important truths. First, there is no shortage of ambition or innovation across our small states. Second, there remains a significant gap between investment potential and investment access.
Bridging that gap is precisely the role of the Commonwealth Investment Network. And as the current phase of the Network draws to a close this month, we now have an opportunity to shape its next chapter.
One that expands its reach across more Commonwealth regions. One that builds stronger pipelines of investment-ready projects. And one that mobilises greater flows of private capital into the economies that need it most.
Because the ultimate ambition of the Commonwealth Investment Network is not simply to support a handful of projects. It is to help build a Commonwealth marketplace for investment, innovation and sustainable growth.
A marketplace that reflects the extraordinary scale of our Commonwealth: 56 countries. One third of humanity. With a young and dynamic population that is brimming with potential. If we connect that potential to investment, expertise and markets, the possibilities are immense.
I am delighted to take a brief moment to launch vital Commonwealth knowledge initiative that complements the Network – the Commonwealth Small States Bulletin. This publication highlights practical examples of how Commonwealth countries are strengthening resilience through partnership and innovation. Across the Caribbean, strengthened debt transparency is improving investor confidence.
In Fiji, climate finance is helping communities protect livelihoods and infrastructure. In Mauritius, business in Rodrigues are expanding export readiness. In Antigua and Barbuda, digital investment promotion is strengthening competitiveness. And across island economies, the transition to clean energy is reducing dependence on imported fuels while creating new opportunities for sustainable growth.
These examples remind us that the story of vulnerability around our small states is incomplete. They are laboratories of innovation. When governments, investors and development partners work together, risk can be reduced, innovation can scale, and investment can transform economies.
That is why the Commonwealth’s new Strategic Plan places small and vulnerable states at the centre of our work – strengthening economic resilience, expanding access to finance, and ensuring that small states have a stronger voice in shaping the global economic system.
The Commonwealth Small States Bulletin captures this story of partnership and possibility. It demonstrates that when expertise, finance and political will come together, small states do not merely adapt to global change — they help lead it. It therefore gives me great pleasure to officially launch the Commonwealth Small States Bulletin.
The Commonwealth Investment Network represents something important. It shows that our Commonwealth is not only a community of values – it is also a platform for opportunity. A place where partnership becomes investment. Where ideas become enterprises. And where shared ambition becomes shared prosperity.
May today’s conversations spark new partnerships, mobilise new capital and open new pathways for investment across our Commonwealth.