20 Measures to attract foreign investment in Egypt

The idea of attracting foreign investments in Egypt has become one of the most important issues that the government focuses on, as it opens up new fields of work, reduces unemployment and increases job opportunities for young people.

The Businessmen Association identified a number of recommendations to attract foreign investment and increase local investment in Egypt during the coming period.

The most important procedures required to attract investments:

1. Applying unified rules for all investors (domestic and foreign), to ensure the success of the investment climate in Egypt.

2. Equality in all matters and procedures, including land allocation, licensing procedures, and incentives, to ensure the application of the principles of fair competition.

3. The stability of financial and monetary legislation and initiatives, especially the lending rates for investment, whether industrial, agricultural, or productive in general, as well as the service sectors that attract foreign exchange, such as tourism and export.

4. Maintaining existing lending initiatives and working on renewing them to ensure the maintenance of existing investments and achieve competition, as investment needs stability and does not bear high bank interest, which ranges between 16 and 18% in Egyptian pounds.

5. The Businessmen Association suggested that the Ministry of Finance establish a fund with the aim of covering the interest differences in lending to support the various important activities and sectors.

6. Develop an integrated and unified strategy to determine the type of targeted investment by focusing on sectors that will contribute to the development of the Egyptian economy.

7. Identifying priority sectors that increase the effectiveness of direct investments in the country and granting investment incentives (customs and taxation for those targeted sectors).

8. Focusing on the investor's needs through conducting survey studies that include senior executives of foreign and local companies in Egypt to discuss the optimal investment climate from the point of view of investors, analyze their expectations, solve their problems and facilitate their work.

9. Determine a unified investment map for all economic sectors (industrial - agricultural - tourism - services) based on real economic indicators.

10. Promoting opportunities such as benefiting from Egypt's strategic location close to Europe, the abundance of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy, the presence of the Suez Canal, the presence of a large market and large internal consumption rates.

11. Accelerating the pace of e-government services in the various service and production fields in a way that keeps pace with what other countries that attract investment have made, with the aim of quickly eliminating bureaucracy, facilitating business, increasing innovation, and working to implement the principles of governance.

12. Developing, activating and disseminating binding guarantees to protect and encourage investors from non-commercial risks, and working to ensure the stability of legislation related to existing projects.

13. Reviewing all laws related to economic and productive activity in Egypt, and emphasizing the creation of mechanisms for transferring profits and other revenues, with the need to simplify procedures for liquidation, bankruptcy, and voluntary exit.

14. Accelerate the implementation and development of the state's plan to achieve technological development in academic and vocational education and training, and benefit from the experiences of some other countries that have distinguished themselves in this field.

15. Involving the Egyptian private sector in all economic decisions affecting the general climate for investment.

16. Finding periodic channels of communication between the Supreme Council for Investment, arbitration centers, and service agencies specialized in investment, such as: lawyers, international auditors, and businessmen's organizations and associations.

17. Assigning the task of promoting investment in Egypt and resolving investors' problems to a higher body directly affiliated to the Presidency.

18. Defining and activating the role of trade missions of Egyptian embassies abroad and the Egyptian commercial representation agency to promote investment in Egypt, so that they present promising opportunities, whether for new or existing industries, to targeted investors.

19. Hosting high-level exhibitions and conferences on a regular basis, where investors meet, which increases and improves investment promotion opportunities.

20.Endeavor to create new international economic partnerships to encourage direct foreign investment in basic services such as water desalination plants, electricity production from renewable energy, and green hydrogen, waste treatment, road construction, and transportation, with incentives for facilities that reduce carbon emissions and other harmful gases, thus contributing to the realization of Egypt's Green Plan.