The race to dominate country specific funds is in full swing. iShares recently filed with the SEC to create another six country-specific ETFs.

The six new funds are:

1. iShares MSCI Brazil Small Cap Index Fund

2. iShares MSCI Egypt Capped Investable Market Index Fund

3. iShares MSCI Ireland Capped Investable Market Index Fund

4. iShares MSCI Philippines Investable Market Index Fund

5. iShares MSCI Russia Capped Index Fund

6. iShares MSCI USA Index Fund

Similar to previous country-specific funds from iShares, all will track an MSCI index to generate returns for investors. iShares’ entry into Brazil is interesting, as the firm already operates a broad based fund that invests in the largest Brazilian companies. The small-cap blend will compete directly with Van Eck’s Market Vectors Brazil Small-Cap Fund (BRF: Quote, Profile, Advanced Chart, News), which took the markets by storm in 2009 and attracted more than $700 million in assets.

iShares will be the first ETF sponsor to track Egyptian and Irish stocks, two areas that are currently under-represented with ETF investors. Neither ticket symbols nor annual expense ratios have been released.

South Africa has been considered the prominent way to invest in the African market; however, a new country has taken the top spot in the latest ETF. TheStreet.com has broken down the components of Market Vectors Africa Index ETF (AFK) and explains that Nigeria and Financials are weighted the heaviest for country and sector, respectively. For starters, Nigeria makes up 32% of AFK with South Africa in second place at 25%. The other three countries that have a noteworthy portion of the ETF are Egypt (13%), Morocco (11%), and Equatorial Guinea (6%). Roger Nusbaum of TheStreet.com writes that this frontier market of Africa potentially has more potential for “modernization” than any other market.

With regard to sector investments in AFK, financials is the leader. The financial sector makes up one-third of the distribution within the 50-stock ETF due to large banks within each of the major countries. The next largest sector is basic materials, which carries 18% of the fund’s weight. Despite the great potential for growth in Africa, Mr. Nusbaum cautions investors of the volatility within a developing frontier market.

Investors now have a vehicle to track the performance of the Middle East region. WisdomTree has just debuted its newest ETF on the Nasdaq Stock Market, known as WisdomTree Middle East Dividend Fund (GULF). Business Wire reports that GULF will provide exposure to about 70 dividend-paying companies located in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. President of WisdomTree, Bruce Lavine, discusses his view of the new fund in the following Business Wire quote, "The growing economies of the Middle East region, while driven by increasing revenues from oil exports, are becoming more diversified. We estimate that equities trading in the Middle East region now make up nearly 2% of the world’s total market capitalization. Further, the equity returns in the Middle East have historically demonstrated a low correlation to the U.S., developed, and even Emerging Markets, and may be a source of portfolio diversification.”

On June 12, 2008, Claymore Securities and The Bank of New York Mellon pioneered the only U.S.-listed frontier market ETF, known as Claymore/BNY Mellon Frontier Markets ETF (FRN). Two weeks after the launch of FRN, Claymore has announced a change to the underlying index meant to rebalance the markets. As a result of the change, The BNY Mellon New Frontier DR Index has added three more country markets to the mix, according to the Business Wire press release. The countries that have been added include Kuwait, Estonia, and Ukraine, which now brings the market exposure to 17 countries. According to Business Wire, the countries that now make up FRN are as follows: Bahrain, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Ukraine and United Arab Emirate. Christian Magoon, President of Claymore and Head of its ETF Group, states, "With its expanded 17 country-composition, FRN continues to provide frontier investors with access to this intriguing growth opportunity.