Dr. Nasr: “we work on fostering an attractive climate for local and foreign investments and on providing investors with accurate data on the opportunities available in all sectors”.
At the beginning of her meetings with various investors, the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Dr. Sahar Nasr met with a number of Egyptian and Arab investors in Egypt, in presence of CEO of the General Authority for Investment (GAFI) Mr. Mohammed Khodeir and a number of GAFI’s staff.
The Minister emphasized that she worked with the government on fostering an attractive climate for local and foreign investments and that communication should be conducted with local investors to solve their problems so as to attract further foreign investments, while noting that the most attractive countries for foreign investment were those that support local investment.
The Minister added that she demanded the activation of decisions of the investment disputes settlement committee, asserting that MIIC was determined to solve the investors’ problems and eliminate obstacles hindering them. This, according to Dr. Nasr, would encourage investors to inject further investments in various sectors and, in turn, increase growth rates and provide thousands of job opportunities to youth, given that the government mainly aimed to decrease unemployment and provide more job opportunities.
In addition, Dr. Nasr ascertained that her meetings would not be limited to her office, but she would conduct field visits to all governorates and would hold meetings with several investors to identify their problems and provide relevant solutions. She also asserted that solving such problems would have a positive impact on achieving development, which would, in turn, positively affect citizens’ lives and raise standards of living.
The Minister expressed her keenness on holding several meetings with small investors within the framework of her willingness to support SMEs.
The Investment Law was being discussed by the parliament, noted Dr. Nasr, who indicated that she assigned GAFI to work on completing the executive regulations of the law concurrently with the parliament’s discussions. The Minister stated that the implementation of the Law was more important than its approval in order to create a legislative environment for supporting investment, noting that the Companies Law was being amended, while calling on investors to provide relevant proposals.
The Minister indicated that she worked with all ministries to improve Egypt’s ranking in the Doing Business Report and to develop an investment plan that includes airports, ports, and industrial, free and investment zones for Egyptian, Arab and foreign investors in line with Egypt’s vision to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
MIIC was developing a database that includes all sectors in Egypt in coordination with all ministries and institutions in the state to identify all investment opportunities and relevant challenges. Accordingly, investors thanked the Minister for her keenness on listening to them and learning about their challenges, besides working on eliminating any obstacles that may face investors in their work in Egypt.
Moreover, the meeting discussed a number of challenges that may face investors as well as their proposals relating to the development of investment procedures. Eng. Mohammed Al-Amin, Chairperson of the Future Group, referred to the significance of holding several meetings with all investors in each sector to identify different challenges. Within this framework, the Minister emphasized that she was willing to hold such meetings with investors of each sector, in presence of the competent minister, to overcome any challenges facing investors.
Mr. Mohammed Abu El-Enein called on the development of the marketing plan of various projects in Egypt’s governorates, along with developing lagging regions through investments and focusing on SMEs. In addition, Dr. Hassan Rateb proposed that a sectoral study would be conducted through developing an investment plan to figure out all the challenges that face various sectors.
Further, Eng. Ahmed Abou Hashima, CEO of Egyptian Steel, asserted that Egypt would focus on industry and agriculture, indicating that no investment would be successful without industry.
General- Director of Majid Al Futtaim Group Mr. Abdullah Al-Nouqrashi called on the activation of investment areas to facilitate procedures for investors.
It is worth noting that, the meeting was attended by a number of Egyptian investors, including Sadiq Al-Sweidi, Mohammed Abu El-Enein, Mohammed Al-Amin, Abdullah Al-Nouqrashi, Khaled Al-Mikati, Mohammed Al-Morshidi, Dr. Hassan Rateb, Ahmed Abu Hashima, Basel Al-Baz, Karim Samy saad and Tarek Tawfik as well as a number of senior investors, including representatives of Orascom Hotels, Qalaa Holdings and Oriental Weavers, besides Arab investors, including Mohammed El-Dahan, CEO of Emaar Misr, a representative from the Batterjee Holding Company and the Saudi German Hospital.
