Grave business - my financial world

Egypt’s government expects to attract about $10 billion in foreign direct investment in the current fiscal year, up from $8.1 billion the previous year, Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said today.

“This is not hard to get,” Mohieldin said at a conference in Cairo. The government will promote 52 infrastructure projects to foreign investors, including Asian and Gulf Arab sovereign wealth funds, he said.

Egypt’s economy has continued to grow amid the global financial crisis, with gross domestic product expanding 4.7 percent in the last fiscal year. That exceeded the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of 4 percent to 4.5 percent, though it’s less than the 7 percent growth that the country achieved in the previous three years.

The government expects growth of more than 5 percent this year, Mohieldin said. It’s drafting a law that would encourage companies to invest in infrastructure, he said.

Mohieldin also said that a financial support package of up to 15 billion Egyptian pounds ($2.7 billion) for infrastructure, proposed by Economic Development Minister Mohamed Osman last month, won’t be necessary unless investment by Egyptian or foreign companies falls short of target levels.

Source