CAIRO: Minister of Investment Mahmoud Moheiddin said Friday the government has no intention of separating the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (Gafi) from the Ministry of Investment (MOI), despite the latter s ongoing success and resulting expansion. Moheiddin also acknowledged that more needs to be done to combat corruption in Egypt s business environment, a factor blamed by government critics and international organizations alike for turning foreign investment away from the country. The minister s comments came on the opening day of the two-day World Association for Investment Promotion Agencies (Waipa) Regional Investment conference in Sharm El-Sheikh. Moheiddin also gave Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif s keynote speech, after the latter failed to appear at the second straight investment conference at which he was supposed to speak in less than a month. Nazif's first noted absence was at October s Egypt Invest 2007. The purpose is not keeping [Gafi] under our control, said Moheiddin. But many of its functions deal with institutions and organizations within the government, so [the MOI] is there whenever it is necessary to resolve issues and remove obstacles. Moheiddin also said corruption still plays a major role in deterring investment, but the government can only continue to work on other more pressing issues, such as improving access to credit and land, in order to minimize the role corruption statistics play in swaying investors decisions. Egypt was recently ranked 70 out of 163 countries on Transparency International s 2006 report, compared with 70 out of 158 in the organization s 2005 report. Waipa brought together 250 delegates from 34 Arab and international investment promotion organizations and eight international economic bodies including United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Economist Intelligence Unit.
