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Egypt Expects 33 Pct Rise In Foreign Investment This Fiscal Year
20/01/2014
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Net foreign direct investment in Egypt is expected to rise by a third to about $4 billion this fiscal year, which ends in June, Egyptian Investment Minister Osama Saleh said on Monday.
"It is a mix of investments, but a large portion of it is Gulf investments," Saleh told Reuters in Abu Dhabi, where he is attending an energy summit.
After over two years of political turmoil, Egypt's economy began to stabilise in late 2013, helped by billions of dollars in aid that Gulf countries began to extend once the Islamist President Mohamed Mursi was ousted last July.
Before Egypt's 2011 revolution, it was attracting net foreign direct investment of around $8 billion annually, according to central bank data.
Saleh, who said he was meeting with several potential investors in the United Arab Emirates, in sectors ranging from real estate to shipping, predicted investment would rise further next fiscal year as tourism picked up.
"The figures for this financial year were all achieved with a tourist industry that was severely hit, so now after the constitution has been approved, we are expecting a revival of tourism," he said.
Last week, voters approved a new constitution for Egypt in a referendum, a major step in a planned transition back to democratic rule.
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