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Recent reports of the Federal State Statistics Service of the major player in the CIS region, Russia, showed that foreign investment in the country's economy reached $103.8bn in 2008, down 14.2% from 2007. 79.4% of all foreign direct investment came from Cyprus, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and the Virgin Islands, the document said. What attracted foreign investors to Russia were high prices on international raw material markets, high yields on Russian assets, and promising forecasts for the Russian economy. With the ongoing global crisis, especially prevalent in the Western European countries, the foreign capital from the countries mentioned above in the emerging markets has been decreasing.
However, the Middle East investor community is yet to be explored due to the previous investments coming mainly from Western Europe. This opens a new door for the CIS region. Following these trends and changes of the global economy, and in particular the CIS and Middle East markets, naseba is capitalizing on this opportunity by organizing the CIS-Middle East Business Forum offering a platform for re-education and networking around the major issues occupying both regional economies. It is focusing on bringing government authorities, private investors and top management from leading investment companies, financial institutions and developers to explore investment opportunities for CIS and Middle Eastern investors.
The two regions have been working closely and in collaboration for the past few years in different spheres such as oil and gas energy, nuclear energy, infrastructure and real estate development, technology, finance. Amidst the current condition of the financial crisis, these close interactions have even greater significance.
The Forum is also supported by the highest authority of Russia in the UAE, the Embassy of Russian Federation. Mr. Pavel Merkoulov, Charge-of Affairs confirmed his participation at the Forum in Abu Dhabi and commented:
"The Russian region is flourishing despite the challenges and unexpected causes of the global economic downturn. The business communities in the region and in particular in the Russian Federation are ready to explore different partnership opportunities. It is our role to support initiatives such as this forum which provide a platform for these communities to discover and develop new business co-operations. We look forward to attending the forum in Abu Dhabi and I am confident that the delegations from Russia will cover the expectations of this gathering."
The focus areas of the CIS-Middle East Business Forum are infrastructure development and financing, equity investment, real estate and property management, energy alternatives. Some of the significant discussions aim at reaching a common opinion on the current state of investment cooperation between CIS and the Middle East and identifying the opportunities for real estate investment amidst the crisis.
Posted by Rima Ali Al Mashni
