21st Century Investment Themes
Fidelity is known for using its fundamental bottom-up research investment process to look for opportunities. However, our thinking does not stop at the company level. Our investment teams also consider long-term global themes which drive trends and could affect stock selection. Fidelity's 21st Century Investment Themes Series encapsulates this strategic thinking and offers fascinating insights into the big issues likely to shape portfolios in the coming years and decades.
The modern world is built on energy. Nearly every aspect of life is dependent upon the production and utilisation of energy. We consider the transition to a decarbonized world as governments encourage a move away from finite fossil fuels to greener, renewable source of energy.
Demographics has a large, somewhat undefined influence on investment markets. The way that changing populations live their lives and spend their money has the power to shape economies and can prove to be an irresistible force on investment markets.
Within the next two decades, more than 60% of the world's population will live in cities. Billions of dollars need to be invested in building and upgrading infrastructure. The private sector is playing a greater role in financing the cost and this opens up investment opportunities for investors.
Technological themes such as mobile connectivity, cloud computing, smart city development and the creation of synthetic life in a laboratory, are just a few strands in a multiplying web of developments that have wide-ranging commercial benefits. Identifying the most interesting and investible tech themes offers considerable growth potential to investors.
Consumption is undoubtedly one of the dominant economic themes of the 21st century. Companies in both western and emerging markets are already jockeying for position to get maximum exposure to what many expect to be one of the most enduring investment themes of our times.
The African region benefits from a vast array of natural resources, which are helping to boost investment, trade flows and economic growth. However, a much greater opportunity lies in the region's own consumption prospects.
How the world responds to the challenge of feeding a growing, more affluent population is set to become a prominent theme over the next few decades. We look at the long-term prospects for food production and how this will affect investors.
Demand for water is intensifying as global, and particularly emerging, populations grow, produce more and become wealthier.
Climate change is set to become one of the defining issues of the next few decades; one that will create both winners and losers in the investment arena.