Dubai The UAE attracted the highest number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the Middle East and Africa last year, according to the latest ranking of FDI destinations by fDi Intelligence, part of The Financial Times.
The UAE attracted the highest number of projects (328), while Saudi Arabia attracted the highest capital investment, which grew 40 per cent in 2011 to just over $14 billion (Dh51.4 billion). However, this is still far below the $42 billion in capital investment recorded in Saudi Arabia in 2008.
The Middle East and Africa (MEA) attracted a total of 1,530 projects last year, up 16 per cent over the previous year although capital investment was down slightly by 1 per cent.
In outbound FDI from the region, UAE-based companies were the most active with investments in 169 projects. While the number of projects from UAE companies declined by 3 per cent in 2011, capital investment overseas declined by 43 per cent. "This was largely due to the continued decline in real estate FDI, with UAE companies investing in 57 per cent less real estate projects in 2011 than 2010, the fDi Intelligence study said.
In the MEA region, South Africa was the best performing country in 2011, with a 57 per cent increase in project numbers, 87 per cent growth in capital investment and a 28 per cent rise in jobs created, making it the leading country in the region for job creation.
South African companies were the second most active in investing overseas, with a strong growth of 25 per cent more projects overseas, 93 per cent more capital investment and 65 per cent more job creation in 2011.
Dramatic changes in the volume of FDI occurred in the countries most affected by the Arab Spring uprisings. The number of FDI projects in Libya and Yemen declined by 80 per cent, in Egypt by 29 per cent, in Syria by 26 per cent and in Tunisia the number of FDI projects fell by 14 per cent.
