Rapid growth in the Middle East has helped see fee income at international accountancy network BDO increase to more than €4 billion.

The figure represents a 4.41 per cent increase for BDO, the world’s fifth largest accountancy network, and further growth is on the agenda.

BDO’s Middle East region was the fastest growing for 2010 11 with an increase in combined fee income of 31 per cent.

Growth in the region has been led by a new firm in the Lebanon, which joined the network in late 2010 and whose contribution was described as “impressive”.

A new Saudi Arabian firm also played a key role in BDO’s growth, while existing firms – in particular Qatar and Egypt – saw significant increases too.

In BDO’s Asia Pacific region revenues continue to grow, showing an increase of 21 per cent and Sun-Saharan Africa saw a revenue rise of 16 per cent.

Growth in Europe was 1.1 per cent, a figure BDO described as “no mean achievement” given the current problems in the euro zone.

As of September 30 BDO now provides services in 135 countries – up from 119 in 2010.

Martin van Roekel, who took on the international CEO role in October said: “Client service is the foundation we’ve built our global business on and continuously developing and implementing exceptional service delivery is the key thrust of BDO’s business strategy.

“These positive results across the board are testament to our commitment to operate as a seamless, integrated network, in which our firms are experts in the country in which they operate, while our shared global methodologies and rigorous quality assurance ensure that our clients experience the same service excellence worldwide.”