The State of Globalization in the Middle East and North Africa – Take a Closer Look DHL Global Connectedness Index

The DHL Global Connectedness Index (www.DHL.com/GCI) showed that the rapidly developing Middle East and North Africa region is steadily rising in the rankings of global connectedness. 2020 Key Highlights: Middle East & North Africa (https://bit.ly/2VHyVZl), published on DHL’s Logistics of Things (https://bit.ly/2U6hJvL) last week, takes a closer look, highlighting potential opportunities and threats to the connectedness of the region.

According to the seventh edition of the biannual DHL Global Connectedness Index (GCI), published by DHL and New York University’s Stern School of Business, the Middle East and North Africa region is on a decline, but still ranks third among the world’s seven regions and is well above the global average. The index measures four international activity flows – trade, capital, information and people – from over 3.5 million data points tracked in 169 countries.

The MENA region covers Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

The GCI 2020 also established that the United Arab Emirates is the highest ranked in the region, and the fourth country globally, in terms of overall global connectedness. The next highest-ranked MENA country is Israel at 24th. In fact, the region has its strongest ties to trade and people pillars, ranking second on both, primarily driven by the large number of migrant workers employed in Gulf countries and hydrocarbon exports. However, intra-regional flows are low, with the strongest flows to and from countries outside the region – Europe and Asia, driven by economic, geographic and political factors.

“The movement of people, trade, capital and information is central to progress, on a national and regional level. Countries in the four most connected regions average five times the GDP per capita than those in the least connected,” says Nour Suliman, CEO of DHL Express Middle East and North Africa. “The message is clear; if we want to go further in the Middle East and North Africa, we must go together.”

For more, visit DHL’s Logistics of Things: https://bit.ly/2U53APs

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Deutsche Post DHL.

Note to editors:

The DHL Global Connectedness Index 2020 (GCI) was published in December 2020 by DHL and the NYU Stern School of Business. The report, now in its seventh edition, was commissioned by DHL and authored by Steven A. Altman and Phillip Bastian of the New York University Stern School of Business. The methodology used to calculate the 2020 DHL Global Connectedness Index is largely unchanged from previous editions of the index. The only significant methodological change introduced in this edition is the addition of international scien­tific research collaboration as a component mea­sure within the information pillar of the index. The data used to compute the index have been com­pletely updated both to extend the results up to 2019 as well as to incorporate revised source data for prior years. They document and dissect levels of globalization, both at the global level and for 169 countries and territories that together account for 99% of the world’s GDP and 98% of its population. The report and additional background information can be downloaded at www.DHL.com/GCI.

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