H.E. Zehra Zümrüt SELÇUK delivered the opening keynote address at the “SESRIC–UNCTAD Regional Seminar on FDI Statistics in OIC Member Countries”, jointly organised by SESRIC and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on the margins of the 9th World Investment Forum (WIF2026) in Doha, Qatar.
Drawing on key findings from the forthcoming OIC Economic Outlook 2026, H.E. SELÇUK noted that foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to OIC Member Countries increased from USD 148 billion in 2021 to USD 220 billion in 2025, while their share of global FDI inflows rose from 8.3% to 13.5%. She emphasised, however, that realising the full potential of these investment flows requires urgent efforts to address critical data gaps and improve the quality, availability, and reliability of investment statistics.
H.E. SELÇUK further stressed that assessing the contribution of FDI to sustainable development requires looking beyond capital volumes to examine its broader effects on productivity, innovation, employment, and linkages with domestic enterprises. Reliable and comprehensive investment statistics are therefore essential for evidence-based policymaking and for evaluating the extent to which investment contributes to sustainable economic growth.
Reaffirming SESRIC’s commitment to statistical capacity-building through its Statistical Capacity Building (StatCaB) Programme, which has reached nearly 16,000 participants across all 57 OIC Member Countries, H.E. SELÇUK called for stronger collaboration with UNCTAD, the Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), the Statistical Centre for the Cooperation Council for the Arab Countries of the Gulf (GCC-Stat), and other relevant statistical institutions. She underscored the importance of joint efforts to strengthen investment data systems and support more informed investment policies across the OIC region.
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