Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi accepted a governmental suggestion to establish a Higher Council for Investment, his office said in a statement on Saturday. The decision comes after al-Sisi met with Prime Minster Sherif Ismail and Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid on Saturday. al-Sisi is expected to chair the new council. Egypt has set its total investment target for the fiscal year of 2016/17 at 531 billion Egyptian pounds ($59.76 billion), representing 16-16.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The government will invest 107 billion pounds ($12 billion) in the fiscal year starting on 1 July 2016, up from75 billion pounds ($8.44 billion) in the same period a year earlier, while public sector and economic entities plan 132 billion pounds ($14.86 billion) in investment. Egypt saw investments worth 172 billion pounds ($19.36 billion) in the first half of the current fiscal year, representing 12.9 percent of GDP. Egypt's economy grew 4.5 percent of GDP in the six months to 31 March, slower than the 5.5 percent growth rate achieved in the same period a year prior. Last week, Egypt's cabinet reshuffled the board of the Higher Council for Tourism (HCT) to be chaired by President al-Sisi. The new board includes the ministers of defence, interior, military production, planning, foreign affairs, local development, international cooperation, culture, tourism, aviation, investment, finance, youth, communications, and antiquities. Officials say that the HCT reshuffle aims to set a new strategy to boost the country's ailing tourism sector, which has suffered a severe blow to revenues which dropped $500 million in the first quarter of 2016, compared to $1.5 billion in the same period last year. source: Ahram Online
