By NNN-Bernama
Kuala Lumpur : The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region offers vast opportunities for Malaysian investors, says Societe Generale Asset Management fund manager (emerging market equities), Mark Krombas.
He said strong economic backdrop, driven by oil revenue, low correlation to the world markets and attractive environment were among the key factors that made the region an attractive place for investment.
“There is also strong demand for consumer and financial products as well as for real estate in the region.
“I believe investing in this region will enable investors to reduce their investment portfolio risk and enhance their overall investment portfolio return,” he said at a media briefing on investment opportunities in the Mena region here Thursday.
Mena region comprises Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.
He said fuelled by rising oil revenues, the region’s economies grew more than five percent in each of the past three years and real gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 6.3 percent in 2006.
Krombas said the massive oil-generated inflows into the Middle East region had resulted in the development of new industries within the region such as financial services, logistics, transportations and telecommunications.
Meanwhile CIMB-Principal Asset Management Bhd chief executive, Datuk Noripah Kamso, said the company aimed to launch new fund to invest in the MENA region in the first half of this year.
She, however, declined to elaborate.