The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) revealed on Monday in its annual bulletin on the foreigners working in the private and investment sectors in Egypt in 2017 that the number of foreigners working in the private and investment sectors reached 13,469 foreigners of different nationalities in 2017, compared to 14,045 foreigners in 2016—an increase of 4.1%. The CAPMAS further explained that the number of foreigners working in Egypt for the first time was 5,441 foreigners by 40.4%, while foreigners who renewed their contracts reached 8,028 foreigners by 59.6% in 2017. Moreover, "the number of foreign arrivals from Asian countries (non-Arab) is the largest number, with 5,233 foreigners, representing 38.8%, noting that most of them are from India with 1,485 foreigners by 29.4%, Bangladesh with 1,474 foreigners by 28.2%, followed by European countries with 3,909 foreigners by 29.0%," the CAPMAS stated. Furthermore, most of the European foreigners came from the United Kingdom with 640 foreigners by 16.4% and Italy with 620 foreigners by 15.9% in the year 2017. On a separate note, the labour force directorates ranked first in terms of issuing work permits for foreigners working in the private and investment sector in Egypt. The CAPMAS stated that the number of work permits issued was 6,183 licenses by 45.9%, followed by investment offices with 4,605 licenses by 34.2%, indicating an improvement in the investment sector and attracting foreigners to work this year, then oil offices with 1,541 licenses by 11.4% and offices of companies with 1,140 licenses by 8.5% of the total licenses granted to foreigners working in the private and investment sectors in 2017. Moreover, the CAPMAS asserted that legislators, senior officials, and managers were the highest number of foreign workers in the private and investment sectors, with 4,029 foreigners by 29.9%, followed by technicians and assistants with 3,364 foreigners by 25.0%, and specialists and scientific professionals with 3,176 foreigners by 23.6% of the total number of foreigners working in the private and investment sectors in 2017.
