Egypt Promoting 54% of Total FDI Flows to COMESA in Past 15 Years

By Hassan El-Khawaga 

CAIRO, Dec. 7 (SEE) - Egypt had captured the lion's share of the total of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) over the past 15 years, with a percentage of 54 percent, the Regional Investment Agency of COMESA said on Friday. 

In a report, the agency said that the total inward FDI reached $224.17 billion out of $415.4 billion in investments to 21 member states of COMESA. 

"During the period from 2003 to 2018, about 990 projects had been carried out in Egypt through 696 firms. The projects offered 263,566 job opportunities," the report added. 

Cairo owns the largest share of the total job opportunities and investments, which are estimated at 64,565 jobs and 49.8 billion dollars in investments. 

According to the report, 326 projects had been operated in Cairo, with 10.06 percent of the total ventures followed by Alexandria, the Sixth of October, and New Cairo. 

The report, prepared in cooperation with Financial Times institution, stated that Libya ranks second in terms of investments, which amounted to $31.6 billion, followed by Ethiopia, Zambia and Kenya.