Barriers and Opportunities for Enhancing Capital Flows
In the COMCEC Member Countries
24
Turkey has emerged as a significant investor, with its outward investment rising by 73% in
2012 to a record US$4bn. In the previous year, outward FDI had increased to $2.3bn from
$1.5bn, representing a 60% rise year on year. The 67% average increase over the period 2010
to 2012 has been attributed in part to a location shift in its investments away from developed
and transition economies to developing countries in North Africa and West Asia in particular,
and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Turkish enterprises have also shown renewed interest in
some least developed countries (LDCs), with greenfield projects recently announced in
Rwanda and Yemen.33
High-Income Countries
The strong rise in oil prices since the end of 2010 has increased the availability of funds for
outward FDI from a number of oil-rich countries. Outflows from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and
the UAE increased in 2011, while those from Saudi Arabia decreased, although they remained
at a relatively high level.34
Compared with other oil-exporting countries, GCC nations invest a considerable amount of FDI
abroad in relation to the inward FDI they receive.35 Much of these outflows are attributable to
the accumulation of foreign assets by GCC states, and the GCC’s strong support of countries
whose balance of payments are under pressure owing to high oil import bills and a drop in
export earnings, as a result of political change.
33 Global Investment Trends Monitor, UNCTAD, April 2012
34 Ibid.
35 M. Peeters, (2011) “The Changing Pattern in International Trade and Capital Flows of the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries in
Comparison with other Oil-Exporting Countries”, European Commission Economic Papers, No. 415, June 2010