$20bn of projects in Egypt up for grabs

Egypt will tender about 30 investment projects worth up to US$20 billion at an international conference in March aimed at securing long-term investment, reported Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister newspaper of The National.

Ashraf Salman, the minister of investments, said that 20 consultants and investment banks had studied the projects and will promote them at the Sharm El Sheikh event, which is backed by Arabian Gulf countries including the UAE.

No further details on the projects were given.

The administration of the president, Abdel Fattah El Sisi, is seeking to attract at least $8bn in foreign investment in the fiscal year that ends in June, almost double the previous year’s total, according to Bloomberg News.

Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE Minister of State and the chairman of the coordination office of UAE-funded development projects in Egypt, had said on Saturday that the three-day Egypt Economic Development Conference would highlight efforts being made to boost the Egyptian economy and attract regional and international investors.

The IMF last month revised up its forecast for economic growth in Egypt this year because of lower oil prices. The country is a net importer of energy and has a large subsidy bill.

The Egyptian prime minister, Ibrahim Mahlab, said that the government was working on a range of economic reforms, including energy subsidy restructuring, microfunding and new legislation for the natural resources sector. Further changes to investment and company laws were also under discussion, he said.

The central bank is also working to increase regulation of the foreign exchange market amid a weakening pound and a thriving black market for dollars.

The central bank last week gave lenders permission to widen the band around the official rate at which they can trade dollars, to 10 piastres above or below the official rate from 3 piastres. One piastre is 1/100 of an Egyptian pound.

Expectations that the central bank will devalue the currency have grown since it announced a surprise 50-basis-point cut in benchmark interest rates last month. The bank said plummeting global oil prices had eased the inflation outlook.

Mr Mahlab was quoted by Bloomberg News last week as saying the government was pursuing “legal, legislative and administrative reforms and a vision to destroy corruption in Egypt”.

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