Finance Ministry enhances global investment relations amid economic reforms

The Investor Relations Unit at the Ministry of Finance actively engages with over 2,000 global investment institutions to highlight Egypt’s attractive economic and investment prospects, as stated by Mohamed Maait, the Minister of Finance.

Minister Maait has emphasized the ministry’s commitment to showcasing Egypt’s lucrative economic and investment opportunities. He outlined the country’s new economic direction, which is anchored in structural reforms designed to foster growth led by the private sector, ensuring stability and economic progress. These efforts have successfully drawn increased domestic and international investments, leading to notable enhancements in financial performance metrics over the last nine months of fiscal year 2023/2024. These improvements have surpassed initial projections and fiscal objectives, despite the severe repercussions of worldwide and regional economic disturbances.

In a statement released today, Sunday, by the Ministry of Finance, Maait highlighted the continuous year-round dialogue maintained by the Investor Relations Unit with roughly 2,000 investment entities globally. The unit also disseminates a monthly executive summary of key economic indicators, including debt levels, deficits, and primary surpluses. This report offers foreign investors precise and current insights into Egypt’s economic climate. Additionally, the unit prepares a streamlined guide detailing investor facilitations, advantages, and tax benefits, addressing all conceivable economic issues and hazards with utmost precision and promptness. It takes into account serious suggestions from international investors and forwards them to the Cabinet for consideration and potential implementation.

Maait noted the global recognition of Egypt’s economic achievements, which have surpassed targeted benchmarks in the past nine months despite the severe impacts of global and regional upheavals. This success is marked by a primary surplus amounting to 3% of GDP, totaling EGP 416bn—an increase of more than eightfold. Non-tax revenues have seen a surge of 122.9%.

Furthermore, the country has collected tax revenues exceeding EGP 1trn, reflecting a growth rate of 41.2%. This feat was accomplished amidst numerous challenges confronting the Egyptian economy, without imposing additional burdens on citizens or investors. The strategy involved enhancing mechanization to expand the tax base, assimilating the informal sector into the formal economy, and keeping the overall deficit at 5.42%. This was in the face of global and regional crises and escalating interest rates, coupled with a 19% reduction in state-funded investments to create more opportunities for the private sector.

The Minister of Finance declared the government’s objective to lower the debt service expense to 30% of total government spending in the medium term. This is part of a comprehensive strategy to decrease the debt ratio to 80% by June 2027. The government also intends to lengthen the average maturity of the budget’s debt portfolio to 3.3 years by the end of June 2024, thereby reducing the general budget’s financing requirements.

Nevine Mansour, Advisor to the Minister of Finance for Financial Policies and Head of the Investor Relations Unit, confirmed their dedication to bolstering the state’s initiatives to improve foreign direct investment inflows and to draw a broader spectrum of investors to Egyptian financial instruments and the stock market. She underscored the prompt engagement with specialists at embassies both within and beyond Egypt’s borders to furnish them with financial and economic data that accurately represents Egypt’s current economic status.