14
SATURDAY 14 MARCH 2015
AL--AKHBAR
AL
EGYPT THE FUTURE
OPINION
Moushira Khattab, Ph. D
Former Minister of Family and Population, Former
Ambassador of Egypt to Italy and South Africa
Hala El Said, Ph.D Dean,
Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University
Egypt’s Unique offerings
E
gypt is a compelling
investment destination,
with unique offerings that
include many privileges. Among
these is the Strategic Location
that Egypt enjoys. Located at a
crossroads which connect Africa,
Asia, and Europe, this God-given
privilege has made it a destination
of choice for exporters. Egypt
has free trade agreements giving
exporters access to African, Arab,
European, Levant, and Turkish
markets among others. Egypt also
boasts the major naval route of
Suez Canal, which accounts for
8-10% of the world’s shipping
traffic, and which has been the
subject of international attention
of since President El Sisi sponsored an ambitious infrastructure
development project to expand
the Suez Canal. Targeted for
completion within one year, the
expansion is expected to double
the Canal’s annual earnings.
In the absence of conventional
sources of financing, Egypt raised
$8.5 billion in bonds subscribed
to exclusively by Egyptians. This
expansion, coupled with development of the surrounding area will
further enhance the prominent
role of the Suez Canal.
Besides, the Large, Diversified
Economy of Egypt with a GDP
$272 billion (2013) makes it the
third largest economy in the Arab
world, and also the third largest in
Africa. Egypt boasts a diversified
economy, which renders it attractive especially during times of
uncertainty such as that currently
surrounding oil prices. Textiles,
Petrochemicals, Tourism, Information Technology are among
the sectors which Egypt boasts a
competitive advantage.
On another hand, a large consumer market: A fast growing
population of over 80 million
young, increasingly affluent,
increasingly sophisticated con-
The government
has already
put in place
legislative
reform which
is designed
to increase
Egypt’s attractiveness as
an investment
destination.
sumers. With 54% of the population between the ages of 20-50,
private consumption accounted
for over 80% of GDP in 2014.
Naturally, the size, and growth
of the domestic market has put
Egypt on the map of most international brands.
Egypt is privileged as well with
a sizeable Well Trained Labor
Force. Egyptian universities produce 300,000 graduates every year
making for a well trained labor
force of 27.6 million - the largest
in the region. In addition, the
country’s modern IT and telecoms
infrastructure and multilingual labor force make Egypt an ideal hub
for international call centers.
Though the four years since
the 2011 revolution have been
marked by political and economic
instability, post June 30th, Egypt
has started showing signs of
a recovery: Announcement of
subsidy cuts in an effort to cut
the 12% budget deficit, EGX30
rallies 40% making it the best performing market worldwide (2014)
without being overvalued in USD
terms, Introduction of restrictions
designed to wipe out the currency
black market, which had developed as the currency lost 40% of
its value, The IMF Projects that
Egypt will grow at 3.5% in 2015.
The government is targeting 5%
by 2018.
Attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of $10-15 billion
per year is key to achieving this
5% target. All eyes will be on
the Red Sea Resort of Sharm El
Sheikh as Egypt announces its
medium term economic development strategy in a global conference aimed at attracting such FDI.
The government has already put
in place legislative reform which
is designed to increase Egypt’s
attractiveness as an investment
destination. I wish my country the
best of luck.
Egyptian Prominent
Economic Figures are
Talk to EEDC through
«Al Akhbar»
The Serious Vision
& Committment
I
am so happy being in Sharm El-Sheikh to
attend “Egyptian Economic Development
Conference” EEDC.. The main objective
of this conference is to put Egypt once again
on the world investment map. This conference is not the end, but rather a step in a long
road toward increasing investment and toward economic and sustainable development.
Egypt has suffered since 25 January 2011
from deteriorating economic conditions that
had its negative repercussions on increasing
poverty and unemployment rates.
The Egyptian govThis conference
ernment has a clear
is not the end,
economic vision and
but rather a
is committed to seristep in a long
ous reform measures.
Draft laws were put
road toward inforth aiming to imcreasing investprove the investment
ment and toclimate, including
ward economic
a new Investment
Law, which among
and sustainable
its many privileges,
development.
changes the penalizing financial crimes to
become fines instead of imprisonment.
Before you, our EEDC guests from dozens
of countries, several projects are presented
in different key sectors; Energy and Mining,
Housing and Logistics, in addition to some
mega projects as the “Suez Canal Axis Development” project, which was a real success
story of using the public funds for a giant
national project. In around a week after the
President called the people to invest in the
project, the Central Bank of Egypt raised
EGP 61 billion (nearly USD 8.5 billion) by
selling investment certificates, in a strong indication of the public trust in the government
that is presenting for you today its projects.
The investment climate reform is, indeed,
a step in a set of legislative measures that
is suggested to contain for instance a law
for Civil Service – and all are hopefully
envisioned to help in solving the problem of
bureaucracy.
SATURDAY 14 MARCH 2015
AL--AKHBAR
AL
EGYPT THE FUTURE
15
AL - AKHBAR
Noha Bakr Ph.D
Assistant to the Minister In Charge of Economic Cooperation with Canada & the Americas,
Egyptian Ministry of International Cooperation
EEDC… THE BEGINNING…
T
he three-day conference
in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of
Sharm el-Sheikh in Sinai,
is an excellent opportunity for regional and international investors
to learn about Egypt’s potentials.
It is also a clear message to the
world, of Egypt’s determination
and strong political will, to survive
and flourish. The aim of the conference is to put Egypt back on the
map of international investment,
and send a message to the world
that the country is safe and attractive. Around 2200 international
investors, economists, financiers,
official delegations, and experts
are attending. Among them are 25
heads of state from the Gulf and
Africa, in addition to other international prominent figures.
The question that rises often is,
why to invest in Egypt. Apart from
the fact that Egypt’s economy
is one of the most diversified
in the region, with the industry
sector representing 32% of GDP;
the services sector 54% and the
agriculture sector 14% - Egypt is,
also, a market with 90 million inhabitants. The growing population
together with increased per capita
income has turned the country
into a major consumer market.
This in turn has led to an increase
in retail market sales and in the
number of multinational corporations operating with significant
revenues in Egypt. Let alone that
skilled labor is available in the
various sectors particularly in the
fields of information technology
and communications, and in banking and tourism facilities. Egypt
has also concluded agreements
with several economic groupings,
that empowers investment opportunities, the most prominent of
which are the European Union (the
Egyptian-EU Partnership Agreement); the US (QIZ Agreement)
the Middle East (the Arab Free
Trade Agreement); and Africa
(COMESA). In addition, Egypt’s
geographic location at the center
of the world has placed it within
reach of international markets
in European, Arab, African and
South Asian regions.
Egypt in its invitation to investors to invest in Egypt, is not only
promising financial revenues, rewards, and healthy investment
Egypt, is not only promising
financial revenues, rewards,
and healthy investment environment, but also stability.
Positive signs of the recovering of the Egyptian economy are sending encouraging
signals to investors.
environment, but also stability.
President El Sissi mentioned
clearly that “If Egypt is stable, a
country with 90 million people,
this will represent the strongest
bedrock of stability in this region.
If this region is stable that means
that Europe is also stable and the
rest of the world. And so what we
have been doing, we are doing all
we can to create an investment
conducive environment. We are
doing all we can to restore the
health of the economy.”
It is worth mentioning that The
Government of Egypt took major
vital steps to enhance the investment environment. Structural economic reforms, such as gradually
reducing fuel subsidies, moving
to deregulate the energy sector
and legislations reforms took
place. The state also paid back a
few billion dollars owed to energy
companies, and resolved the main
investors past disputes.
In fact, positive signs of the recovering of the Egyptian economy
are sending encouraging signals to
investors. The International Monetary Fund held article IV consultation for the first time in four
years it estimates 3.8 % growth for
the fiscal year 2014/2015 and rise
5% over the medium term, with
fiscal consolidation that brings the
budget deficit below 8% GDP by
the year 2018/2019. Foreign direct
investment came in at $4 billion
last year, and Investment Minister
Ashraf Salman says it will double
to $8 billion in this fiscal year. The
chairman of the Egyptian stock
exchange expects seven or eight
companies to list on the bourse
by mid-2015, in addition to three
companies which had already
listed this year, including Orascom
Construction , which began trading
in Cairo recently. Confidence in
the Egyptian market is increasing
with a recovery of the economy.
In 2014, 13 companies listed with
combined capital of 1.9 billion
Egyptian pounds ($249 million),
which was 10 times the amount
seen in 2013. This was reflected in
the improvement of Egypt rating
by Fitch, Standard & Poor and
Moody’s. Such improvements led
the government of Egypt to aim to
cut the budget deficit to 10 percent
from 12.8 % by next year, and reduce unemployment to 12 % from
13.1 percent.
Recently Investments even
started pouring in Egypt before the
conference, for instance, British
Petroleum announced it would
develop natural gas resources
out of the Nile Delta to the tune
of some $12 billion. The project,
equivalent to a quarter of Egypt’s
current supply, will help alleviate
power shortages that lead to
rolling blackouts affecting tens of
millions of people, in addition to
other projects that were marketed
prior to the conference and signed
During the events of it.
In the Economic Development
Conference, the strategies &
adopted policies of ten economic
sectors is illustrated to investors. More than 30 projects will
be unveiled, which can attract
billions of dollars of Projects
in energy, transport, industry,
telecommunications and housing
among others will be offered
for foreign investment. These
projects are diversified between
private, private public, and public
sector.
This conference in March
is the beginning of a serial of
conferences to come, to dialogue
with national, regional and international investors, illustrating in
the future the further economic
opportunities in a country that is
worth investing in on all levels.
Board Chairman
& Editor-in-Chief
Yasser Rezk
Managing Editor
Refky Fakhry
Art Ditector
Ahmed Shalaby
Hatem Mahmoud
Editing Board
Yassmine ElSayed Hani
Hussein Yasser
Asmaa Haggag
Mai Sayed
Aya Samir
Reem El-Zahed
Yasmin Wael
Atef Abd-Ellatif
Ahmed Fathy
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