UAE, Qatar top MENA in FDI attractiveness; Oxford Economics

UAE, Qatar top MENA in FDI attractiveness; Oxford Economics

Qatar and UAE are still the most attractive countries for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Gulf and wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, a new report from Oxford Economics shows.

The favorable business environment and the quality of infrastructure of the UAE and Qatar played key roles in helping these countries to attain the top score. Oxford Economics’ scorecard examines the relative FDI attractiveness of MENA countries on the basis of the factors influencing business operability in a country and potential domestic and export market growth.

“The GCC overall spends 4-10 percent of GDP on infrastructure, which is comparable to spending by some Asian economies,” the report noted, adding as a result, the quality of infrastructure in the GCC is ranked relatively high.

In terms of the quality of the infrastructure, the report forecasted Qatar’s infrastructure spending to be 10.4 percent of the gross domestic product by 2025 against 7.2 percent in Oman, 6.3 percent in Saudi Arabia, 4.9 percent in Bahrain, 4.1 percent in the UAE and 2.5 percent in Kuwait.

The UAE’s infrastructure is on a par with Singapore, with Israel, Qatar, Oman, Turkey and Saudi Arabia not far behind, as per the World Bank’s Logistical Performance Index.

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