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 one percent of the global foreign direct investments and two 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)
