Gulf | Saudi Arabia
Riyadh to host GCC Investment Horizons Forum
Leading regional and international experts and economists will gather together here on Monday to discuss the ways and mechanism to protect Gulf investments from the fall out of the global financial crisis.
- By Abdul Rahman Shaheen, Correspondent
- Published: 18:22 April 26, 2009
Riyadh: Leading regional and international experts and economists will gather together here on Monday to discuss the ways and mechanism to protect Gulf investments from the fall out of the global financial crisis.
The theme of the Third Round of GCC Investment Horizons 2009 Forum, which will kick start at Kingdom Hall of Four Seasons Hotel, is "The Future of Gulf Investment within the global financial crisis."
Some 14 international experts in addition to senior government officials, prominent business and finance men and women, and academic specialists in the field of investment from the GCC states as well as from abroad will attend the event, according to the organising committee of the event. The participants also included governors of the Gulf central banks.
According to an official statement issued by the organizing committee, there are no official statistical figures about the volume of investments made by the GCC states abroad. However, the preliminary estimates, revealed by several GCC and international bodies, put this at about $2 trillion by the end of last year. This represents the investments in foreign assets made by these countries abroad.
These figures do not include value of investments made by individuals or companies as well as tje volume of foreign trade made by the GCC with several economic blocs, amounting to $800 billion.
The statement also pointed out that the GCC states took advantage of the record increase in the prices of crude oil in the global market during the last five years, and a part of this revenue also went to the foreign investments of the GCC states.
"The Gross Domestic Product of six GCC States reached $900 billion last year and this include half of the GCC investments abroad," the report said.
The Riyadh Investment Horizons Forum is organised by the GCC General Secretariat, in cooperation with the Federation of GCC Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Gulf Rose for Exhibitions and Conferences.
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