Rabat - Morocco has been ranked among the top ten countries in the 2015 Islamic Growth Markets Investment Index, which ranks the investment potential of countries within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The index is conducted by Thomson Reuters, the world's leading provider of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, in partnership with Dinar Standard, an Islamic markets research and advisory firm. The index is based on a set of nine metrics covering the categories of a country’s growth fundamentals, growth momentum, investment momentum and relative country risk.
The report, presented during the Global Islamic Gateway conference in Bahrain last week, has revealed that Indonesia showed the strongest growth fundamentals among the top three having the highest population (249 million, 2013) and GDP ($870 billion, 2013), while Malaysia the strongest growth and investment momentum (217 per cent FDI inflows growth 2009-13).
UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the three countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which have made it to the top ten list. Other markets on the top 10 include Kazakhstan, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, and Mozambique.
According to the report, the investment potential across the 57 OIC countries is “well above world average.” It added that member countries represent a combined GDP of $6.7 trillion in 2013 and are projected to grow at a higher rate of 5.4 per cent in 2015-19 than rest of the world (3.6 per cent) or BRICS nations (3.9 per cent).
"The purpose of the Islamic Growth Markets Investment Report 2015 is to present a new view of looking at investment opportunities across the OIC member countries," Dr. Sayd Farook, global head of Islamic capital market at Thomson Reuters, said in a statement.
"Focused on fast-growing consumer-driven sector clusters of food, retail, tourism, health and others, as well as government spending driven infrastructure and construction, the report addresses a gap of looking at investment opportunities across the full geographic spectrum of these growth markets and their global value chain."
The report identified the top OIC sector clusters that "provide best opportunities for sector based investment strategy." They are: Energy, food and agriculture, electronics, travel and transportation, metals, chemical and allied, plastics/rubber, textiles and related, infrastructure and construction, and health products and services.
"The top 10 clusters were identified based on the analysis of manufacturing and services sectors that are collectively the strongest across these markets. This prioritization provides investors a first look at key sectors of activity and growth potential," said the authors of the report.
Energy, says the report, is the largest OIC sector cluster by virtue of aggregate score derived from exports volume, imports and domestic consumption across OIC markets. Energy sector cluster exports were the highest within OIC worth $1.3 trillion in 2013 representing 43 per cent of global exports.
The OIC's sector of food and agriculture is the second-largest and its exports were $118 billion in 2013, representing eight per cent of global exports. Domestic demand value from food sector across OIC is the highest among all sector clusters and estimated at $974 billion, representing 16 per cent of global food consumption, the report added.
Travel and transportation is the third-largest OIC sector cluster, and its exports were $192 billion in 2013, representing six per cent of global exports.
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