An IMGlobalWealth.com News Report
The Investment Migration Forum opened with a wide-ranging “Opening Bell” panel that brought together leading voices from academia, government, policy, economics, due diligence, and private practice to examine the forces shaping the future of investment migration.
Opening Bell Panel Sets the Tone for This Year’s Investment Migration ForumThe Investment Migration Forum opened with a wide-ranging “Opening Bell” panel that brought together leading voices from academia, government, policy, economics, due diligence, and private practice to examine the forces shaping the future of investment migration.Held under the title Insights from This Year’s Forum, the session reflected the increasingly broad agenda of the investment migration field. Residence and citizenship by investment are no longer discussed only as products or programmes. They are now being examined in relation to geopolitics, economic uncertainty, global mobility, soft power, due diligence, and the competition among states to attract talent, capital, and credibility.Bruno L’ecuyer FIMC, CEO of the Investment Migration Council, opened the discussion by highlighting the Forum’s role as a platform capable of producing practical outcomes for the field. He pointed to the work of the IMC’s communities of practice, including the due diligence white paper prepared for this year’s Forum, as an example of how expert collaboration can generate tangible benefits for the profession as a whole.Andres Solimano FIMC, IMC Chair and Chief Economist, placed the conversation in the wider context of the global economy. He noted the pressures created by slow growth and uncertainty, underlining how investor mobility is increasingly shaped by macroeconomic conditions, political risk, and the search for stability in an unsettled world.Charlie Maggi, Founder of IDEAFrance, addressed France’s potential as a residency-by-investment jurisdiction. He argued that France is often perceived as complex, yet remains one of Europe’s strongest destinations for foreign direct investment. He said a properly structured investment route could allow investors to inject capital directly into French companies, making the model straightforward from both an investment and business development perspective.Noora A. Lori, Associate Professor at Boston University, brought an academic lens to the discussion by examining passport power as a measure of international politics rather than merely as a travel convenience. She described passport rankings as a proxy for trust, desirability, security, and soft power, showing how mobility rights reflect the way states perceive one another and the populations they represent.Walter Cohen, Director General of the ProPanama Government Agency, presented Panama as a country seeking to speak with one voice to the global investment migration community. He stressed the importance of cooperation between the public and private sectors, positioning Panama as a jurisdiction actively engaging with international investors, legal professionals, real estate developers, and policy stakeholders.Panama’s presence at this year’s Forum was also notable. The country was represented by a sizeable delegation, including figures from government, the legal sphere, finance, and real estate. During the session, L’ecuyer also hinted that next year’s 12th Investment Migration Forum could move to a new continent, with Panama being considered as a possible host destination in the Americas.While no formal announcement has yet been made, such a move would mark a significant geographical shift for the Forum and would underline the growing importance of Latin America in global mobility, investment, and wealth migration conversations.The opening panel also featured Lisa Chanesman IMCM, Founding Chair of the IM Community of Practice, Froilan T. Malit, Jr, PhD Politics and International Studies Candidate at SOAS University, and H. Ron Klasko FIMC, Chairman of Klasko Immigration Partners, reflecting the breadth of expertise gathered at this year’s Forum.As the session made clear, investment migration now sits at the intersection of capital, mobility, reputation, regulation, and state strategy. From economic uncertainty and passport power to due diligence, foreign direct investment, and emerging regional opportunities, the discussion set the tone for a Forum focused not only on market trends, but also on the wider forces reshaping the movement of people, wealth, and opportunity across borders.
