CAIRO: Since Egypt Invest first appeared in 2003, discussing investment opportunities in Egypt, it has all come a long way. Starting with the FDI figure from 2003 of $452 million, Egypt entered one of the most prosperous and fastest investment paced periods in its history. Youssef Botrous Ghali, minister of finance, said recently that "We are instigating policies and that have quickly restored optimism and confidence in the economy. This is evident in a variety of indicators. FDI amounted to $6 billion by end-June 2006 against $3.9 billion in 2005, and a mere $ 452million in 2004 . Riding on the back of this investment revival once again comes the Egypt Invest 2006 Conference, now in its fourth year, which will be taking place at the InterContinental, CityStars, Cairo on Nov 1-2, 2006. Already with several leading international companies supporting this year's event such and EFAD Holdings (Kuwait), Al Futtaim Capital (UAE) and AstraZeneca (UK) many are expecting this year's event to pick up where last year's left off. Michael Essex, director of the International Finance Corporation, who will also be speaking at the conference, said that The discussion of measures taken by the government to make business easier was well received by local and overseas investors. But more importantly, the Egypt Invest conference provided investors with a forum to identify other reform measures and discuss them directly with the Authorities . With many leading speakers such as Prime Minster Ahmed Nazif, Youssef Botrous Ghali, Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid and Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin, there is no shortage of senior government representation. Also different this year is the fact that the organizers have developed the event to address three of the biggest and heavily vital sectors for discussion; Energy, ICT and Real Estate. With billions of dollars now steadily flowing into all of these sectors, there is plenty to discuss. Boutros Ghali also mentioned that "the best testament to the confidence in the economy is that foreign investors are more and more making long term investments in Egypt . Investors are already recognizing the transparency, certainty, predictability of economic policy. Recent cases in point include a huge foreign investment project on the northern coast in Sidi Abdel Rahman and the third mobile operator license where most bidders were foreign investors.
