Bahrain hosted on Wednesday 24th June the regional launch of UNCTAD World Investment Report, 2015, where Mr Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EBD) made an opening statement.
“In terms of percentage of GDP (55.4%), Bahrain’s inward FDI stocks, which reached $18.8 billion in 2014, and this percentage remained the highest in the GCC and well above the global average, emphasising Bahrain’s position as one of the region’s most open economies,” the report added.
Mr Al Rumaihi was joined by Mr. Mohamed Chiraz Bali, representing the Division of Investment and Enterprise at UNCTAD, who presented the findings of the report to representatives from the private and public sectors, as well as the media along with Dr. Zakaria Ahmed Hejres, Chairman of the MENA Centre for Investment. The event was held in cooperation with the Bahrain EDB and the MENA Centre for Investment.
“There is no doubt that the region, and wider world, still faces a challenging economic climate, as businesses and governments continue to recover from the economic shock of 2008 as well as the current oil price environment, as illustrated by the investment flows outlined in this year’s World Investment Report,” said Mr Al Rumaihi said.
“However there are a number of structural drivers which give cause for a more optimistic long-term outlook in the region, including connectivity, increasing economic integration, and the demographic dynamics.”
Mr Al Rumaihi also thanked UNCTAD for their efforts in preparing the global report, and highlighted that it has become an invaluable tool for policy makers.
The report says that global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 16 per cent to $1.23 trillion in 2014, due to the fragility of the global economy, policy uncertainty for investors and geopolitical risks, as well as new investments being offset by some large divestments. China became the largest recipient of FDI, and nine of the largest twenty investor countries were from developing or transition economies. The shift towards FDI in services related sectors continued, due to increasing liberalisation and tradability of services, as well as the growth of global value chains in which services play an important role. FDI into West Asia, which covers a number of countries in the MENA region including the GCC members, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq, also fell by 4 per cent to $43 billion, reflecting the global economic issues and ongoing security risks. Turkey remained the largest FDI recipient in the West Asia region, whilst investment into the GCC remained “sluggish” despite continuing robust economic growth.