The governor of Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), Amr Al-Dabbagh has highlighted the role of mega economic cities in Rabigh, Madinah, Hail and Jazan in attracting foreign direct investment. "The economic cities helped the four regions draw a lot of foreign investments, in terms of funds invested by their developers and investments in various projects," said Al-Dabbagh. Saudi Arabia has become the eighth largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world in 2009, attracting $36 billion, according to the World Investment Report (WIR) of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Last year, the Kingdom was placed 14th in a similar ranking published for the year 2008. The inflows in 2009 were lower by five percent than the total FDI inflows of $38.1 billion attracted in 2008, the report was quoted as saying by Arab News. --MORE
