The Egyptian Investment Minister, Osama Saleh said in a keynote speech at Euromoney’s 19th Annual Conference Cairo on Monday, the foreign direct investments reached the minimum, and it must be risen, as the investments were $1billion in 2007-2008 and the annual totaling reached EGP13billion, this was the highest rate due to the sale of telecom licenses and after the bank of Alexandria being privatized.
Within 2008 the rate declined and after Egypt’s uprising immediately it became $2.2billion, then it surged by $4billion and it finally has reached $3billion, but if you look at the number of the firms which have been established, you will see that the investments inched.
We have reached to $2.2billion direct foreign investments and the direct foreign investment represents 25% of the investments’ size generally in the market.
The Minister said The foreign direct investment is one of the foreign currencies income, but the most notably providing technology and high-level training for youths, which will help the Egyptian investors significantly, so it is important to the Egyptian economy.
He said the investment since 2004 reached EGP46billion when we started the economic reform program, and by 2008 it became EGP129billion, but it has risen in June 2013, registering EGP153billion.
He added that many investments provided from Gulf States and Russia and within days we will hold upcoming Egyptian-Gulf investment conference on December 4th and 5th, 2013, including several investors from UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman.
The conference is one of the strategies used by the ministry to attract investors; it will be held on the 4th and 5th of December. It aims to promote the large-scale projects the government is currently developing. Pending investment contracts with several Gulf States would be finalized during this event.
The restructuring of the public sector would completely change the structure of the Egyptian economy. Our objective is to avoid further losses in this sector and align these companies with Egypt’s economic roadmap. The ministry aims to enlarge the sector’s reach and impact on the citizen. Current studies by the ministry include reforms in the textile industry, which incurs losses representing an economic burden on the government. The ministry seeks to allow textile investments to reach 6 billion pounds. Reforms are being assessed carefully in order to decrease their effect on the employees of these industries.
The ministry is reforming a set of laws for the General Authority for Investment (GAFI), aiming to attract investments in cooperation with the Egyptian Exchange and the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority.
He further explained that ‘Bedaya’ fund is playing an important role to finance Small and Medium sized projects in Egypt, adding that A legal team from the Ministry of Investment is currently analyzing the effects of imposing a tax on stock trading. The Ministry will present the economic ministers the results and accordingly, decisions would be taken collectively. We are committed to remove all barriers that face investors in the market.
