CAIRO: Net foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow hiked to $5.7 billion during the first nine month of last fiscal year 2014/2015 (ended June 30,) compared to $3.1 billion in the same period a year earlier, Planning Ministry said Monday.
“The rise is a positive sign of reinstating investors’ confidence in light the political and economic stability Egypt has witnessed recently,” the ministry said in a report.
In March, Egypt hosted an international investment summit in Sharm el- Sheikh to lure fresh FDI to bolster the country’s limping economy battered political unrest since the January 25 Revolution. FDI slipped to $2.2 billion in FY 2010/2011.
“Over 50 percent of the MoUs we signed in the Sharm el- Sheikh summit have turned into deals and work has started on them,” Planning Minister Ashraf al-Arabi told Reuters on Saturday.
The Egypt Economic Development Conference resulted in deals and memorandums of understanding (MoU) worth $60 billion, while Gulf states namely Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Oman, promised a total of $12.5 billion, in investments as well as deposits in the central bank.
In FY 2013/2014, FDI inflow into Egypt rose to $4.1 billion, up from $3.8 billion a year earlier.