The three-day Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference, dubbed the 'Davos in the Desert', has started in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with more than 6,000 of the world's leading decision makers, entrepreneurs and leaders in attendance.

Here's a quick glance at what the various investment leaders from across the globe had to say about several aspects of the global economy during the various sessions on the opening day of the investment conference.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, said: "I would worry more about geopolitics of the world today than recession."

He said he is concerned about the Russia-Ukraine war and the relationship between the US and China.

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, said: "If we have a significant recession in the US or elsewhere in the world, we will work through that. But it will take a variety of decisions and time to work through."

Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Chairman of the Future Investment Initiative Institute (FII Institute), said the global community must learn how to manage crisis and not be managed by it during his opening remarks for the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh.

“For the PIF we have different mandates. One of the main mandates that we have is to deploy investments in domestic economy, so we said we will deploy $40 billion to $50 billion in annual basis on not only green projects but green field projects that would have an impact on the economy,” Arab News quoted Al Rumayyan as saying during the conference.

“So, we are looking at our bottom line, we are looking at the economic multiplier: what good these projects would do to the economy, what kind of jobs it will create, the quality of these jobs and the quantity of these jobs,” he said.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director at Reliance Industries Limited, stressed on the need for India, Saudi Arabia and other countries involved in the FII to step up their energy security and climate change commitments in their quest to the use of renewable sources in the next decade.

Renewables account for only 10% of global power generation. Transition from fossil fuels to renewables will take time and investments in oil and gas should continue to ensure global growth, Ambani said. 

Richard Attias, CEO, Future Investment Initiative Institute, said: "Cost of living is our main priority, followed by poverty, social inequality and unemployment. People seem to be more optimistic about the direction they are going in their own life, but less so when it comes to their country and the world as a whole."

(Writing by Seban Scaria; editing by Daniel Luiz)