03/09/2013
Saudi Arabia controls 51% of the region's market
Manufacturing investments rise in the Gulf by 22%
Recent figures revealed a high ratio of investment in manufacturing industries in the Gulf region, to 22.4% between 2008 and 2012, the same period also saw growth in the number of manufacturing factories in the Gulf by 5.2%. Information management expert Dr Saleh Taha in the Gulf Organization for industrial consulting GOIC stressed on the significant changes in the private sector, where the number of manufacturing factories in the gulf countries from 12317 factory in 2008 to 15165 factories.
The volume of investment in the sector in the same period rose from 149578 million dollars to 336138 million dollars, and employment rose to 1.34 million workers. Taha said that Saudi Arabia came as the first Gulf country in the number of employee, up 51.1 % of the total, followed by the UAE by 24.4 %and Kuwait 6.3 %, 5.3 %, Oman and Qatar by 5.1 % and finally Bahrain by 4.4 %.
Information management expert said that the volume of investments in the manufacturing sector is concentrated mainly in Saudi Arabia, which controls 51.3 of the total investment, Qatar by 24.4 %. He said that the Gulf public sector played a role in the construction and expansion of the industrial base, through its contribution to the creation of several industrial parks with capital-intensive and high production capacity. He said also efforts were focused on the exploitation of local resources of wealth "carbohydrate" such as petrochemicals, fertilizers, chemicals, iron and steel. The Gulf Council countries have achieved in the past decade major development in this area, and has succeeded in providing the infrastructure by establishing industrial cities, funds and development banks and industrial incentives to investors.
