Billions of dollars are likely to be withdrawn from US markets, explained top financial experts attending the recent Islamic intra-investment conference in Almaty, Kazakhstan, ending September 3, 2003. Losses suffered by Arab investments abroad due to the global economic slowdown are already estimated at over $400 billion.
The fifty-seven Islamic countries represented at the event, also members of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC), expressed uneasiness about investing in the United States. Arab depositors describe the once attractive market to be increasingly unwelcoming since the September 11, 2001 attacks. The change of heart is primarily linked to calls in the US to freeze assets of Arab or Islamic investors suspected of terror funding.
Arab funds abroad are estimated to be as high as $4.2 trillion. The conference also highlighted that OIC states have failed to loosen the Western hold over foreign trade of the region. As late as 2001, OIC merchandise exports totaled $520.2 billion, only 8.6 percent of the total world merchandize exports that year, reported Arab News.
OIC is an inter-governmental organization grouping fifty-seven Islamic states. It was established in 1969 with the purpose of strengthening cooperation in the political, economic, social, cultural and scientific fields between member nations. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
