The Arab Investments Guarantee Association reported that the Arab countries attracted $7.8 billion worth of foreign direct investments last year, out of $870 billion total foreign direct investments throughout the world. This implies that the Arab countries received only 1 percent of the global foreign direct investments and 2 percent of the arriving foreign direct investments directed at the developing countries.
According to Al-Sharq Al-Awsat newspaper, the Arab Investments Guarantee Association estimated the Arab investments outside the Arab countries at more than $1,000 billion. This figure is 140 percent larger than the value of the GDP of all the Arab countries.
The association assessed the total pan-Arab investments at $2.2 billion, adding that these investments were mainly targeted at a limited number of Arab states including: Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Sudan.
The pan-Arab investments totaled $13 billion during the years 1985-1999, growing from $400 million in 1990 to $4.2 billion by the end of 2000. –(Albawaba-MEBG)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
