Investment opportunities in the MENA region

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, driven by the need to provide employment to a growing workforce and counter increasing competition from other emerging markets, have introduced economic and investment reforms to increase private investment in their countries. Although the level of foreign private investment in the MENA region throughout the 1980s and 1990s remained low, the region has now become attractive to investors due to acceleration in the pace of reforms and a decline in the role of the state. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows increased at an average of 28 per cent per annum, from $13bn in 2000 to over $97bn in 2008.