Economic Conference Amid Ambitions, Challenges

The economic conference “Egypt 2022” kicks off today, amid a global economic crisis that the West and the East suffer from; the crisis is represented in inflation, high prices, a Russian-Ukrainian war, confusion in supply chains and an energy crisis.

 In fact, the conference, that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi called for and was prepared by the government, is a new starting point, where experts, economists, businessmen, investors and officials will meet to discuss economic policies, empower the private sector and create a business environment, and most importantly formulate a road map towards the future .

The government’s goal is serious, clear and specific, as the Prime Minister said, to agree on the state’s economic road map during the coming periods, and to propose clear policies and measures that contribute to increasing the competitiveness and flexibility of the Egyptian economy. My expectations and aspirations for the conference do not differ from what Dr. Madbouly announced, I wrote about this matter two weeks ago as the economy is the main axis of life.

But what is new is the internal challenges and the fluctuations, wars and confusion in supply chains that affect us. As we see the whole world suffers from a severe economic crisis due to the war in Central Europe and the Corona crisis that stifled the global economy for two years and its ghost is still around us, amid great relaxation in the application of precautionary measures and social isolation at the level of individuals and institutions.

This conference is the second of its kind after the June 30 revolution. The first conference in 2015 was called for by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Sharm El-Sheikh, and achieved direct investments and agreements that exceeded $60.2 billion at that time, leading us to achieve self-sufficiency in many industries in 2018, then export the surplus, which made us enter this conference with the same ambitions and confidence since the government is making facilities, creating promising investment opportunities, and taking advantage of the existing components and capabilities, It eyes investments of about EGP100 billion .

All these ambitions make us optimistic but it is my right and the right of those who are confident that this country, with its conscious leadership, which possesses a clear vision, is able to overcome obstacles and achieve ambitions, to witness serious, frank and public discussions and specific measures to address the problems that the industry suffers from.

But my questions are wailing for answers through the activities and recommendations scheduled to be issued on Tuesday,: What are the incentives we offer to attract real investments.. Are investment opportunities , procedures facilitation, and tax exemptions fully available?