Egypt’s Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation has inked a cooperation protocol to account for the foreign direct investments (FDIs) that have been flowing into Egypt in recent years, Ahram Online reports.
The protocol has been signed between the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), affiliated to the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation, and the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA).
Investment Minister Sahar Nasr said that the protocol involves the activation of item 14 of Article 74 of the New Investment Law, which mandates the collection of any data on FDI accounting and assets from public and private entities for statistical purposes in accordance with the international standards.
“The Egyptian cabinet’s economic committee, under the supervision of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, has revised all economic indices with the exception of the FDI indices due to the lack of a full accounting of FDI numbers and estimations, including the expansion of foreign firms in Egypt’s domestic market and the Suez Canal Development project investments,” Nasr explained.
Meanwhile, GAFI’s acting executive chairman Mohamed Abdel-Wahab revealed that two committees have been formed to collect the required data and statistics to establish an integrated and up-to-date database.
Furthermore, the committee is allowed to take the necessary actions regarding the cases of money laundering and terrorism financing in coordination with the Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Unit, according to Abdel-Wahab.
Head of FRA Mohamed Omran asserted that FDI estimations must be accounted correctly in view of the economic reforms that Egypt has undertaken and the success it has achieved in this regard, adding that data on all companies under FRA will be submitted to GAFI.
He added that the latest Global Competitiveness Report, which is released annually by the World Economic Forum, has shown notable progress in Egypt’s economy, and anticipated an improvement in Egypt’s ranking in next year’s report.