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According to Citi’s MENA Projects Tracker, $2.5 trillion of projects are under development or actually under construction across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Of these, 90% are in the Gulf and 60% are in just two countries: the UAE and Saudi Arabia. By sector, just over $1 trillion of this total is being invested in MENA real estate projects and $812bn in infrastructural schemes. The scale of this investment can be seen in comparison with the $376bn that is being spent on the lynchpin of the regional economy: oil and gas. The report’s author, Farek Soussa, commented: “There is a heavy bias in the UAE towards real estate projects, while infrastructure projects dominate in Qatar. The oil and gas sector is of greatest significance in Algeria, while Jordan is spending most on power and water.” The government of the UAE predicts that foreign direct investment (FDI) will reach $14.4bn this year, up from $12bn last year, finally returning to pre-crash FDI levels. At least two-thirds of this FDI will be made in the construction sector, with Chinese companies accounting for a rapidly increasing proportion of investment. Nasser Saidi, the former chief economist at the Dubai International Financial Centre, told journalists: “That is the most significant change: east is moving west. Developed market investment into developing markets is being replaced by emerging markets going into other emerging markets.”
