Data supplied by fDiMarkets shows that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the most popular destination in the Middle East for US FDI, with 612 projects to date, accounting for nearly half of all US projects in the region. The country has been the leading Middle East destination for US FDI from 2003 to 2010, and the data collected from the first nine months of the year, suggests that this trend will continue in 2011.

The most active year for US FDI investment in the Middle East was 2008, when there were 219 such projects recorded in the region. The UAE accounted for over half (120) of these projects, with the second most popular destination being Israel, where there were 23 US FDI projects.

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Business and services, and software and IT services are the leading areas of investment by US companies in the UAE. In February 2009, US-based data storage specialist EMC Corporation teamed up with Emirates Computers to open a $400m technology centre in Abu Dhabi.

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