Bahrain was ranked 18th in the 2015 Islamic Growth Markets Investment Index which ranks countries' investment potential relatively within the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) member states.

Thomson Reuters in partnership with DinarStandard, an Islamic markets research & advisory firm, presented the key findings of Islamic Growth Markets Investment Report 2015 during the Global Islamic Investment Gateway conference in Bahrain, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

The index is based on a set of nine metrics covering the categories of a country's growth fundamentals, growth momentum, investment momentum and relative country risk.

Indonesia showed the strongest growth fundamentals among the top three having the highest population and GDP, while Malaysia the strongest growth and investment momentum.

GCC economies led by UAE are also on the top ten list including Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Other markets on the top 10 include Kazakhstan, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco and Mozambique.

"The purpose of the report is to present a new view of looking at investment opportunities across the OIC member countries," Thomson Reuters global head of Islamic capital market Dr Sayd Farook said.

"Focussed on fast growing consumer driven sector clusters of food, retail, tourism, health and others, as well as government spending driven infrastructure and construction, the report addresses a gap of looking at investment opportunities across the full geographic spectrum of these growth markets and their global value chain," he said.

In order to leverage this widely dispersed yet connected opportunity landscape, the report presents DinarStandard's OIC Industry Clusters Model that is a sector based investment strategy.

It identifies unique region-wide roll-up, carve-out, growth, operation-value-creation and alliance opportunities across a sector's value chain.

The top OIC sector clusters identified are: energy, food and agriculture, electronics, travel and transportation, metals, chemical and allied, plastics/rubber, textiles and related, infrastructure and construction, and health products and services.

The opportunities cover greenfield project investments as well in fast maturing domestic companies across these sectors.

According to DinarStandard chief executive and managing director Rafi-uddin Shikoh, a mix of corporates from Islamic growth markets are fast maturing and ripe for growth investments.

"Tasnee and SABIC are chemical global leaders fast growing in energy downstream sectors; Yildiz Holding/Ulker, Savola Group, Indofood, Felda, Almarai are globally competitive food and agriculture companies; Emirates Group, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways and Saudi Arabian Airlines are major growth airlines; and Emke Group - LuLu, BIM, Majid Al Futtaim are emerging as regional retail giants," he said. Thousands of such companies are ready to take their propositions global. - TradeArabia News Service