Egypt's Economy is Good Despite All Global Challenges - Maait

Egypt’s Finance Minister, Mohamed Maait, said the performance of his country’s economy is good despite the difficult global challenges, according to a statement on Tuesday.

During fiscal year (FY) ended 30 June 2022, the Egyptian economy grew by 6.60% and an initial surplus of 1.30% was registered. Meanwhile, the overall budget deficit declined to 6.10% in June 2022, compared to 16.50% in FY13/14.

The minister’s remarks were made during the recently-held Egypt-Singapore Business Forum. With $1 billion worth of investments, Singapore is one of the largest Asian countries investing in Egypt. In 2021, exports from the Arab world’s most populous nation to Singapore increased by 208%.

During his speech, Maait stated that Egypt aims to increase Singapore’s investments across various sustainable development sectors in the country, noting that the business ecosystem in Egypt is attractive to local and foreign investments.

The Finance Minister stressed that the Egyptian economy is diversified, and that the business climate in Egypt is attractive to increase domestic and foreign investments.

He said that the “Golden License”, the “State Ownership Policy Document” and the “Government Offerings” programme are among the efforts made by the state to maximize private investments and make room for the private sector to have a greater role in economic development through the state’s exit or reducing its role in a number of economic activities and fields, pointing out that we aim to attract foreign direct investments of $10 billion annually, including the green economy.

The Minister added, during the Egyptian-Singaporean Business Forum, that the Egyptian economy achieved a good and reassuring performance during the past fiscal year that ended in June 2022, despite the very difficult global challenges that cast a shadow over various countries, especially emerging economies. He elaborated: we recorded a growth of 6.6% of GDP during the fiscal year 2021/2022, and we succeeded in reducing the total budget deficit from 16.5% in 2013/2014 to 6.1% in June 2022, and the transition from a primary deficit of 8.4% of GDP in June 2014, to a primary surplus of 1.3% in June 2022.

The Minister said that the revenues of the Suez Canal achieved a new record level by the end of June 2022 by about $7 billion, and the remittances of workers abroad amounted to $32 billion during the last fiscal year. He added that 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% of tourism as a result of the loss of tourists from Russia and Ukraine, as the country is trying to compensate for this by attracting more tourists from other countries, including Germany, Britain and Italy, bearing in mind that tourism is an important source of foreign currency.

The Minister said that we are looking forward to increasing Singapore's investments in Egypt to benefit of the promising opportunities provided by Egypt in various sectors of sustainable development, bearing in mind that economic relations represent the cornerstone in the fields of cooperation between Egypt and Singapore, which extends for more than half a century.

He added that relations witnessed great development between 2015 and 2016, to make Singapore one of the largest Asian countries investing in Egypt by about one billion dollars, with a portfolio of commercial and investment projects between the two countries that increased by 30% during the past few years, in several areas, most notably: industry and logistic services. He pointed out that Egyptian exports to Singapore increased by 208% in 2021 to reach half a billion dollars, while Singapore's exports to Egypt increased from $128 million in 1995 to $255 million in 2020.

Singapore’s Ambassador to Egypt, Dominic Goh, said his country eyes more investments in Egypt after Singaporean companies succeeded in providing thousands of job opportunities, adding that the forum is a good opportunity to discover new partnerships.

Eng Magd ElDin El Manzlawi, Secretary-General and Chairman of the Industry and Scientific Research Committee of EBA, stressed that the state is keen to create a business-friendly environment that attracts domestic and foreign investments, paving the way for Singaporean investors to expand their activities and inject new investments into major development projects in Egypt as they are one of the main investors in the world.

He added that the close diplomatic relations between Egypt and Singapore should be reflected in deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries through these regular meetings, so that it would be a starting point for creating a favorable platform for commercial and economic businesses, especially since Singapore is one of the fastest growing countries in doing business in the world.

Dominic Goh, Ambassador of Singapore to Egypt, said that we are looking forward to more investments in Egypt especially after the success of Singaporean companies in creating thousands of job opportunities in Egypt, pointing out that the Egyptian-Singaporean Business Forum is a good opportunity for Singaporean companies to explore new partnerships with the leaders of the private sector in EBA.