Economy makes good performance despite tough global challenges

Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maeet confirmed that the Egyptian economy is diversified and that the business climate in Egypt is attractive to domestic and foreign investments and make room for the private sector to have a greater role in economic development.

The finance minister’s remarks came during the Egyptian-Singapore Business Forum which was held in Cairo on Tuesday.

Minister Maeet said that the government aims to attract $10 billion in foreign direct investments annually including the green economy.

He added that the Egyptian economy achieved a good performance during the past fiscal year ending in June 2022 despite the very difficult global challenges that affected various countries, especially emerging economies.

Egypt achieved a growth of 6.6 per cent of GDP during the fiscal year 2021/2022 and succeeded in reducing the total budget deficit from 16.5 per cent in 2013/2014 to 6.1 per cent in June 2022. It also managed to move from a primary deficit of 8.4 per cent of GDP in June 2014, to a primary surplus of 1.3 per cent in June 2022, the minister said.

The minister also indicated that Suez Canal revenues registered a new record level by the end of June 2022 by about $7 billion. He added that remittances of expatriate workers reached $32 billion during the last fiscal year.

Meanwhile, tourism revenues amounted to $10.7 billion by the end of June 2022, compared to $4.9 billion in the fiscal year 2020/2021, despite the loss of 35 per cent of tourism because of the loss of tourists from Russia and Ukraine. He noted that Egypt is trying to compensate for this by attracting more tourists from other countries, including Germany, Britain and Italy.

The minister said that Egypt is looking forward to increasing Singapore’s investments in Egypt to take advantage of the promising opportunities provided by the country in various sectors of sustainable development.

Engineer Magd El-Din El-Manzlawy, Secretary-General and Chairman of the Industry and Scientific Research Committee of the Egyptian Businessmen Association, stressed that the state is keen to create a business-friendly environment that attracts local and foreign investments.

For his part, Dominic Goh, Ambassador of Singapore to Egypt, said his country is looking forward to more investments in Egypt, especially after the success of Singaporean companies in creating thousands of job opportunities in Egypt.

He also pointed out that the Egyptian-Singapore Business Forum is a good opportunity for Singaporean companies to explore new partnerships with the pioneers of the private sector in the Egyptian Businessmen Association.