Recent FDI Trends in the Maghreb Region: A Brief Overview
الكلمات المفتاحية:
FDI، privatisation، liberalisation، foreign investmentالملخص
From the early 1980s the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) have, with varying extent and pace, initiated important reforms aimed at restructuring their economies through liberalisation and privatisation. With a more market-oriented system being pursued – pointing towards their gradual integration into the global economy – these countries have made foreign investment one of the top priorities in their development process. In light of the main policy measures undertaken by the governments concerned, this paper seeks to assess the degree of their respective success in making their economies more attractive to foreign direct investment. It also reviews the degree of performance that has tended to vary across the region. Issues that need to be addressed to improve much more the enabling environment/conditions for the business to expand and diversify are considered at a final stage.المراجع
For further details see, for instance, Eduardo R. Borensztein, Jose De Gregorio and Jong-Wha Lee, ‘How Does Foreign Direct Investment Affect Economic Growth?’, Journal of International Economics, 45, 1 (1998), pp. 115-135; Theodore Moran, Foreign Direct Investment and Development: The New Policy Agenda for Developing Countries and Economies-in-Transition (Washington: Institute for International Economics, 1998).
UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2002: Transnational Corporations and Export Competitiveness (New York and Geneva: United Nations, 2002), p. 189.
For a detailed account on host country determinants of FDI, see for instance UNCTAD, World Investment Report 1998: Trends and Determinants (New York and Geneva: United Nations, 1998). Padma Mallampally and Karl P. Sauvant, ‘Foreign Direct Investment in Developing Countries’, Finance and Development, 36, 1 (March 1999), pp. 34-37; Nora Ann Colton, ‘The Maghrebi Economies as Emerging Markets’, in Yahia H. Zoubir (ed), North Africa in Transition-State, Society and Economic Transformation (Gainsville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1999), pp. 158-176.
UNCTAD, Investment Regimes in the Arab World: Issues and Policies (New York and Geneva: UNCTAD, 2000), p. 7.
UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2003 - FDI Policies for Development: National and International Perspectives (New York and Geneva: United Nations, 2003).
Ibid. Ibid. World Bank, World Development Indicators 2001 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001), pp. 270-272.
There are twenty foreign oil companies operating in Algeria with a 2.5 billion dollars invested in exploration so far; for more details see http://www.sonatrach-dz.com, accessed 19 March 2002.
Algérie Presse Service, ‘IDE : 2,3 milliards USD dans le secteur des hydrocarbures en 2003’, http://www.aps.dz/fr/pageview.asp?ID=60688, accessed 12 April 2004.
See European Commission, Barcelona Euro-Mediterranean Conference (27-28 November 1995) – Declaration and Work Programme, DN: DOC/95/7, 4 December 1995.
Financial Times, 19 December 1995.
Arabies, no. 107, November 1995, p. 34; see also Financial Times, 28 November 1995.
Eurostat, Statistics in Focus – Economy and Finance, no. 13, 2003, p. 2.
ANIMA, ‘Foreign Direct Investment in the MEDA region in 2003’, http://www.animaweb.org, accessed 04 April 2004.
Ibid., pp. 26-27.
