‘Egypt opens its doors to local, foreign investments’

CAIRO – Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said Egypt opens its doors to local and foreign investments with the view to achieving comprehensive and sustainable development in the country.

This came during his meeting with CEO of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) Hani Sonbol on the sidelines of his participation in the Egypt International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF 2022) and the meeting of African ministers of finance, economy and environment in the New Administrative Capital.

During the meeting, the minister asserted Egypt’s keenness on stepping up efforts to diversify financing sources and tools to reduce the cost of development investments, particularly in light of the significant impact of the current global economic crisis.

He further underlined the opportunities for joint cooperation with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) in many economic projects, along with benefiting from its experiences in Egypt’s issuance of “green bonds” in a way that contributes to attracting new investors and helps sustain the economy, create more job opportunities, and raise the standard of living of citizens and the services provided to them.

The minister noted that Egypt is studying with the Japanese side the issuance of “green Samurai” bonds during the coming period, citing Egypt’s success in launching the first issuance of “Samurai” bonds in the Japanese market, with a value of 60 billion Japanese yen, in a way that attracted many Japanese investors.

He also underlined the current joint cooperation with the Chinese side to issue Yuan-denominated “Panda” bonds in the Chinese market.

For his part, CEO of ITFC Hani Sonbol said that one of the strategic axes of the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector is based on its great experience in issuing sovereign sukuk in many countries, a matter that has been praised by international institutions.

He further explained that there is an opportunity to cooperate with Egypt in this field, expressing keenness on working with Egypt to issue sovereign bonds or green bonds.

“We also have experience in the water, energy and food sectors, and we can develop ambitious programs that support the national platform for green projects in NWFE (Nexus on Food, Energy and Water) program, he stressed.