- CAIRO: Egypt’s investment chief says foreign direct investment is forecast to drop by over 40 percent in the current fiscal year in the wake of the unrest that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak.
General Authority for Investment and Free Zone Chairman Osama Saleh said officials had targeted foreign investments of $7 billion, but were now expecting roughly $4 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30.
Egypt’s economy has been hard hit by the mass protests that ousted Mubarak in February.
Saleh said on the sidelines of an Egypt-Kuwait investment seminar that officials are focusing on attracting Gulf Arab money, in part because those oil rich nations already have a solid investment base in the country.