Egypt creates investor incentives to court GCC capital

• Laws to cut licensing bureaucracy
• Aim to attract Gulf and Turkish investment
• SMEs needed to expand production base

Egypt has launched policies and incentives to attract Gulf investors as it anticipates fresh capital inflows.

The government aims to cut bureaucracy by introducing new company and business-centre laws and widening the use of “golden licences”, which give all needed permits in a single approval rather than through multiple agencies.

Egypt targets foreign direct investment (FDI) of between $14 billion and $15 billion in the current 2025-2026 fiscal year that started on July 1, said Hossam Heiba, CEO of the country’s general authority for investment and free zones.

During 2024, Egypt attracted around $12 billion in FDI, excluding the $30 billion Ras El Hekma development project signed with Abu Dhabi’s ADQ sovereign wealth fund, Heiba told Dubai-based Erem business news.

He said Egypt, which has undertaken reforms in partnership with the International Monetary Fund, is widening its investment targets beyond big-ticket deals and is working to attract capital to small and medium-size enterprises to expand its production base and create jobs.

Key sectors include green energy, industry – in particular the car sector – textiles, electronics, logistics, information technology and pharmaceuticals, he said.

“We have created special teams to serve investors coming from abroad, particularly the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey, with the aim of facilitating their work and incentivising them to expand their investments,” Heiba said.

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Gulf nations are already among the largest foreign investors in Egypt given their strong political and economic relations.

The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states pumped more than $41 billion into the North African country during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, according to Egyptian investment and foreign trade minister Hassan Al-Khatib.

Besides Ras El Hekma, another significant GCC investment was signed last month when Diar, the real estate arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, agreed to develop a tourism project also valued at nearly $30 billion in Alam El-Roum, on the northern Mediterranean coast.