A senior economist at the Saudi American Bank said that the total amount of private Saudi money invested abroad has reached 700 billion dollars.
The Saudi newspaper Al Watan cited Brad Bourland as saying that the Arab investment flow into Europe exceeds the volume of the European investments in the Arab world.
According to the expert, this finding should prompt the Arab countries to provide an attractive environment for foreign investments. The attraction of foreign capital into the area, the creation of suitable conditions for commercial dealings, and the restoration of the Arab money invested abroad have become one of the most important issues which currently concern the economists and Arab governments.
The recommendations were made by participants at the Arab European Investment conference concluded in Beirut last Thursday. The conference was attended by a number of experts from various Arab countries.
Poorland pointed out that the only way to attract Arab funds back from abroad is to provide investment opportunities in Arab countries which are comparable to the ones existing in advanced Western countries. In such an environment, he said, investment risks exist but at the same time, the return on capital would be sufficient to compensate for the risk factor.
In this way, the expert added, investors feel that they can achieve profits proportional to the risks they may encounter in the course of their investments.
“As we say in the banking world, the capital has no passport, it flows to the place where there are investment opportunities,” the senior economist concluded.
Meanwhile, an Arab banker has said that an estimated six to eight billion dollars were smuggled from Egypt last year due to high exchange rates of the US dollar and a state of fear prevailing in the country’s exchange market.
The remarks were made by Mahmoud Abdul Aziz, head of the Arab Banks Union and Egypt’s International Commercial Bank in an interview two days ago with the editors of Al Alam Al Yawm Arabic daily -- Albawaba.com
