SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Participants of EFG-Hermes' sixth annual One-on-One Conference's confirmed the region's "huge potential for expanding trade, exports and foreign direct investment, the investment banking firm said in a statement. Utilizing the market slow down in the US and Europe, high oil prices and new investment laws and government regulations in the region, Yasser El-Mallawany and Hassan Heikal emphasized the positive outlook for the Middle Eastern economies. El-Mallawany, chairman and CEO of EFG-Hermes, began his speech by saying "As some of you may recall eight years ago this conference started with five companies and six investors. Today, we have 57 companies [presenting] 10 countries; 400-plus investors; over 11,000 one-on-one meetings requested and 1,800 were arranged - being the maximum capacity. "What we see today reflects the paradigm shift of the region as a must-have-allocation within a global portfolio. Such a position, hasn't been achieved out of vacuum but based on strong economic fundamentals, where regional markets compete at varying degrees, to open up and attract quality investors at a time when we are experiencing volatility and gloom in the more mature markets, he added. Meanwhile, Heikal, co-chairman and CEO of EFG-Hermes, began his presentation by comparing the MENA region's GDP per capita to other regions'. He commended the region for surpassing Eastern Europe, South East Asia and Latin America in this field. Heikal also referred to the favorable market capitalization of the MENA region, declaring that it is currently $1.4 trillion. Heikal stated that the daily traded value of the MENA region surpasses that of other markets, accounting for $4,279 million. "It all happened in the last five years, Heikal added, referring to the increase of the average daily traded value of the region from $261 million to the current value. The three-day conference ends today.
