DAMMAM — The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation, APICORP, a multilateral development financial institution, estimates that planned and committed investments in the MENA region will exceed $792bn over the next five years (2020–2024). According to APICORP’s MENA Energy Investment Outlook 2020-2024, the amount marks a $173 million decline from the $965bn in last year’s five-year outlook. The overall decline in the investment outlook — mostly in planned investments — is largely attributed to the 2020 triple crisis: the COVID-19-related health crisis, oil crisis and a looming financial crisis. Despite these difficult circumstances, however, the GCC region’s committed investments increased by 2.3 percent compared to a 6 percent overall decrease in the MENA region as a whole, indicating a higher project execution rate in the GCC. Dr. Ahmed Ali Attiga, Chief Executive Officer of APICORP, said: "The impact of COVID-19 is already deeper and longer-lasting than past downturns. Indeed, the nature of this triple crisis and the profound restructuring in oil and gas will hit energy investments for a potentially long period of time, sowing the seeds of supply crunches and price volatility. Therefore, we expect a W-shaped recovery for the MENA region. Furthermore, despite the positive effects of digitization and automation on efficiencies across the value chains, many fundamental questions remain that will negatively affect investments."" ""International collaboration between the private and public sector will, therefore, be critical to counter the expected shortfalls in investment, and APICORP will continue to play a lead support role in this regard as a trusted financial partner to the region’s energy sector," he added. — WAM