fDi African Countries of the Future Rankings 2011/12

South Africa has been knocked off the top spot this year with Morocco awarded the African Country of the Future 2011/12

Morocco has climbed from third position in the 2009/2010 ranking to become the top African Country of the Future 2011/12. South Africa was placed second, followed closely by Mauritius in third.

Morocco’s success in claiming the top position in the 2011/12 ranking is partly down to its success in attracting FDI projects. According to the specialist FDI database, fDi Markets, the number of FDI projects into both South Africa and Egypt (positioned first and second in the 2009/2010 ranking) declined, whereas the number of FDI projects into Morocco was up 8% in 2010 – one of few countries in the region to experience an increase in the number of FDI projects in 2010.

South Africa dropped to second position in this year’s ranking, but despite witnessing a 13% decline in the number of FDI projects into the country in 2010, the latest figures released by fDi Markets confirm that South Africa remains the number one destination country for FDI into the region between January and May 2011.

Mauritius moved up the ranking, climbing from fourth position to third overall in the 2011/12 ranking.

Highlights include:-

  • Morocco was also awarded the top position in the Infrastructure and FDI Strategy categories.
  • South Africa ranked in the top three of various categories including: Economic Potential, Infrastructure, Human Resources, Business Friendliness and FDI Strategy.
  • Egypt fell from second position to fourth overall in the 2011/12 ranking. According to fDi Markets the country experienced a 30% decline in FDI projects in 2010 and is struggling to recover, attracting only 16 FDI projects between January and May 2011. Despite this decline, Egypt ranked top in the Economic Potential category, primarily due to the number of mega FDI projects locating in Egypt in comparison with other African countries since 2003.
  • Mauritius was awarded the top position in the Quality of Life category, climbing from fourth in this category in 2009/10.
  • fDi’s independent judging panel were impressed by the FDI Strategy submitted by Morocco and so awarded the country the top position in this category. It was followed closely by Mauritius in second, with South Africa, Ghana and Ethiopia completing the top five.
  • Rwanda was awarded the top position in regard to Cost Effectiveness, followed by Namibia and Zambia in second and third positions, respectively.

The full results and rankings are available on www.fDiIntelligence.com/Rankings – please register to download the full results for free. For further information please contact Tamsin Purchase, tamsin.purchase@ft.com or +44(0)20 7775  6342.

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Notes to editors

About African Countries of the Future 2011/12

  • fDi Intelligence compiled most of the data for the African Countries of the Future ranking, with the exception of the FDI Strategy. For this category information was submitted by individual countries and scored by fDi’s independent judging panel.
  • Methodology: fDi’s Countries of the Future shortlists are created by an independent collection of data by the fDi Intelligence division across 59 African countries. This information was set under six categories: Economic Potential, Human Resources, Cost Effectiveness, Quality of Life, Infrastructure, and Business Friendliness. A seventh category was added to the scoring – FDI Strategy. In this category, 13 countries submitted details about their promotion strategy and this was judged and scored by the independent judging panel. Countries scored up to a maximum of 10 points under each individual criterion, which was weighted by importance to give the overall scores.
  • Full results available on www.fDiIntelligence.com/Rankings and in fDi Magazine – August/September 2011 issue.

About fDi Intelligence

  • fDi Intelligence, from The Financial Times Ltd, is the leading provider of foreign direct investment  intelligence. The portfolio encompasses world class products, services and business tools that allow companies and Economic Development Organisations alike to make informed decisions regarding foreign direct investment.
  • Products within the portfolio include fDi Markets, a database tracking crossborder greenfield investment on a real time basis; fDi Benchmark, a database which benchmarks global locations on their attractiveness to foreign investors; and fDi Magazine
  • www.fDiIntelligence.com

About The Financial Times

  • The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, FT.com is the definitive home for business intelligence on the web, providing an essential source of news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community

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