CAIRO: Hazem Zaki Hassan of KPMG was named the chief of the Board of Trustees of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), according to a statement on the investment ministry's website. Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif announced GAFI's new board of trustees, with Hassan succeeding Ziad Bahaa Eldin, who served as chairman for two terms and now heads the Egypt Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA). Members of the new board include Saad Sallam, Mohamed El-Dakroury, Samir Radwan, Samir Hamza, Laila El-Khawaga, Amr Abdel Sameea, Abdel Hamid Ibrahim and Abdel Fatah El-Gebaly as experts. Naguib Sawiris, Nasser El-Khorafy, Abdel Rahman Hassan El-Sharbatly, Mostafa El-Naggar and Alaa Arafa represent Egyptian investors. On the board sits one of the deputies of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), who is appointed by CBE Governor Farouk El-Okdah; a representative from the EFSA as well as the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), among representatives of other official authorities. "Not all members have political affiliations with the National Democratic Party (NDP), half of them are not even members, El-Gebaly, who is also an economic expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said. GAFI's board of trustees plays an advisory and supervisory role on investments in Egypt. "We follow up with international reports, updates and trends to give suggestions to the executive board, El-Gebaly explained, adding that the executive board is not obligatd to heed these recommendations. The board comprises experts from different business fields and political affiliations and members serve on a voluntarily basis. "The board was established under the investment law, and its mission, as a consultancy council, is to study the investment atmosphere, the incentives, the obstacles and provide policies and procedures to improve it, in addition to writing analytical reports to analyze the investment environment in Egypt, said Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin in a statement on the ministry's website.
