GCC countries need to improve the quality of foreign direct investment (FDI) data they release, a top official of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has said.

UNCTAD Division on Investment and Enterprise's investment trends section chief Masataka Fujita said that better quality of FDI data benefits economic actors in all countries, and should be placed as a top priority on governments' agenda, reported the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Making FDI statistics reliable, timely, comparable and consistent is a shared responsibility and common goal of the international community, Fujita said.

Fujita was speaking on the sidelines of a workshop on statistical and policy issues on foreign direct investment in Bahrain and other GCC countries, organised by Bahrain-based MENA Centre for Investment in partnership with UNCTAD.

The three-day workshop held at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Residence and Spa featured presentations for various issues relating to data on FDI and transnational corporations (TNC) and the implementation of a widely-accepted survey in the region.

Discussions on the way forward to realise the harmonisation of FDI statistics in the region and the setting up of a compilation and data dissemination system for internationally comparable FDI and TNC statistics, were also held.

Mena Centre for Investment chairman Dr Zakaria Ahmed Hejres said the overall objective of the workshop was to assist officials in ministries and agencies, central banks, and other public and private institutions from the GCC countries who deal with statistical and policy issues on FDI to better understand and report FDI trends.

"Eventually, the countries would have capacities to analyse such data and formulate better policies on FDI," he said. - TradeArabia News Service