EGYPT is on track to attract $10 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI), despite the financial crisis, Egypt's Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin said. "The target that we announced is $10 billion...I think that despite the challenges globally and regionally we can obtain that... Egypt is still enjoying growth in numbers that are higher than the average, and opening new regions for investment," Mohieddin told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview late Monday. Egypt, the most populous Arab country, saw its economy grow 4.7 per cent in the last financial year, slowing from 7.2 per cent the previous year as the global downturn hurt exports, although stimulus measures by local authorities helped avoid a bigger dent. Mohieddin said he expected the economy to grow up to 5.5 per cent this year led by information technology, construction and tourism sectors. "Tourism, Egypt's main foreign currency earner, is growing by around 12 per cent to 15 per cent this fiscal year," he said, adding that construction is seen growing by more than 11 per cent and the information technology, or IT, sector by 14 per cent. According to him, Egypt, Africa's fifth-largest oil producer, was also looking to attract more investments from Asia. "Countries like China, India, Malaysia... we are going to Singapore and Hong Kong and this part of the world," said Mohieddin. Fast-growing Asian economies like China and India are largely thought to have escaped the brunt of the global recession and is expected to lead the economic resurgence. Mohieddin also said investors were beginning to target the underdeveloped southern region of the country. "Upper Egypt is providing a great promise of an area that was not really receiving investments... I'm talking about foreign, Arab and local investment. Now because of the preparations that we have taken, things are actually happening in upper Egypt," he said. He dismissed concerns about the issue of presidential succession impacting investment. "Egypt is a country that has institutions and constitution that is very well respected. It's a peaceful country and the mechanism of the transfer of power is very much protected by the constitution and the laws," said Mohieddin. "This is a country that has seen possibility of growth, seen prospects of investments and people are aspiring for better future and there is a tendency for stability in the country," Mohieddin added. Egypt's gross domestic product increased by an annualised 5.1 per cent in the three months to end-December, led by technology, construction and hotels and restaurants, according to the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC). The economy grew 4.9 per cent in the previous quarter while in fiscal 2008/09, which ended in June, it grew 4.7 per cent. Construction grew by 11.5 per cent, the hotels and restaurant sector by 13.1 per cent and the communications and information sector by 12.8 per cent. A Reuters survey of 15 economists on January 26 suggested that gross domestic product growth would accelerate to five per cent in this fiscal year and to 5.5 per cent in 2010/11. Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said in October the Government aimed to get back above seven per cent within two years. The Central Bank of Egypt cut interest rates six times from February to September 2009 to encourage growth, but it has left rates unchanged at its last three policy meetings.
