At the end of her visit to the Saudi capital "Riyadh", the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation held meetings with several investors and Arab funds, on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) chaired by Chairperson of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF) Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in presence of more than 2500 leading and influential figures from over 60 states worldwide.
The Minister met with Supervisor of the Saudi PIF Mr. Yassir bin Othman Al-Rumayyan. Both sides discussed increasing cooperation between MIIC and PIF to encourage Saudi investments in Egypt. The Minister emphasized that the government worked on creating an attractive investment climate by providing incentives and guarantees and overcoming all obstacles facing investors, besides giving due regard to Saudi investments in Egypt in light of Egyptian-Saudi strategic and close relations.
Further, the Minister agreed with the chairman of PIF on accelerating the injection of new investments to the Egyptian market during the upcoming period through focusing on projects in the fields of agriculture, tourism, industry, health, education, construction, and renewable energy. This is within the framework of the Egyptian-Saudi Business Council& increasing of investments in Egypt to reach USD 51 billion from both Saudi public and private sectors.
Moreover, the Minister met with the Saudi Minister of State Dr. Essam bin Saad, where both sides discussed increasing investment cooperation between both countries during the upcoming period. A meeting was also held between Dr. Nasr and several heads of Arab funds, including the Saudi Fund for Investment (SFD) and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD), where national projects such as the Sinai Development Project, the Egypt Entrepreneurship Program (EEP) and Fekretak Sherketak Initiative for supporting startups were followed-up on. On her part, the Minister emphasized Egypt constant aspirations to develop its relations with the SFD in light of the deep- rooted relations between both sides, given that the current cooperation portfolio is worth approximately USD 2.5 billion including 23 ongoing projects. She highlighted the importance of receiving the rest of funding tranches of development projects in Sinai Peninsula totaling USD 1.5 billion within the framework of King Salman Bin Abdul-Aziz Program. The Minister also discussed supporting the education and transportation sectors with the AFESD. She further met with Managing Director of Equity at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Mr. Hassan El-Khatib, where both sides discussed supporting "Fekretak Sherketak Initiative commended by EBRD. In addition, the Minister met with several investors from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and regional investment banks working in the Arab world as well as General Electric and American Investment Funds participating at the conference. The Minister gave an overview of the advantages of the Investment Law and its incentives and guarantees, especially in lagging regions. She also presented Egypt investment opportunities and called on investors to inject new investments in Egypt, noting that there were several investment opportunities in the Suez Canal Development Project and the New Administrative Capital as well as more than 600 investment opportunities nationwide.
