Huge infrastructure spending in the Arabian Gulf will stimulate private capital investment because the banking sector cannot fund the projects alone, say local fund managers.
“Coming to the capital markets is a must. We are going to need them to develop the infrastructure that’s required,” says Salah Shamma, co-head of Mena equities at Franklin Templeton, Middle East, who spoke at the Mena Investment Management Forum in Doha, Qatar.
“The banking sector can’t do it by itself,” he adds.
The Gulf states are expected to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure in the coming years. In Qatar alone, the country’s investment plan will cost nearly $140 billion.
Abdulrahman Ahmad Al-Shaibi, finance director at state-owned Qatar Petroleum, who spoke at the beginning of the Mena Investment Management Forum, says in his opinion the total cost of the Qatar plans could exceed $250 billion
©2012 funds europe
