Egypt's Investment Ministry has inked a cooperation protocol to account for the foreign direct investments (FDI) that have been flowing into Egypt in recent years. The protocol has been signed between the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), which follows Egypt's investment ministry, and the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA). Investment Minister Sahar Nasr said the protocol involves the activation of item 14 of Article 74 of the new investment law, which mandates the collections of data on FDI accounting and assets from public and private entities for statistical purposes in accordance with international standards. “The Egyptian cabinet's economic committee, under the supervision of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, has revised all economic indices with the exception of the FDI indices due to the lack of a full accounting of FDI numbers and estimations, including the expansion of foreign firms in Egypt's domestic market and the Suez Canal Development project investments,” Nasr explained. Nasr also said that a meeting was held with World Bank officials to discuss combating anti-money laundering, and that Egypt is eager to witness progress in this issue. Meanwhile, GAFI's acting executive chairman Mohamed Abdel-Wahab revealed that two committees have been formed with the aim of collecting the required data and statistics to establish an integrated and up-to-date database. Furthermore, the committee is allowed to take the necessary actions regarding money laundering and terrorism financing cases in coordination with the Combating Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Unit, according to Abdel-Wahab. Head of the FRA Mohamed Omran asserted that FDI estimations must be accounted correctly in view of the economic reforms that Egypt has undertaken and the success it has achieved in this regard, adding that data on all companies under the FRA will be submitted to GAFI. He added that the latest Global Competitiveness Report, which is released annually by the World Economic Forum, has shown notable progress in Egypt's economy, and anticipates an improvement in Egypt's ranking in next year's report. Source: Ahram Online
