Egyptian MP: Atmosphere does not support investment

Egyptian parliamentarian Medhat Al Sharif, secretary of House of Representatives’ economic committee, revealed details of the new investment law currently discussed by his committee, saying that it is a huge law composed of 124 articles committing the investors take a large number of measures that are supposed to be taken by the government.

He added that the investors need simple laws supporting them for investing in the country during the current critical period, stressing the need for taking serious measures to push the investors to increase their investments in the country. He added that the committee reviewed a number of articles and demanded to cancel them, including the articles that allow investors from different citizenships to take the lands of the state for investing objectives.

The Egyptian parliamentarian criticized the recent measures taken by the government on the economic side, including the decision to liberate the currency’s rate of exchange. He blamed these decisions for the increasing prices of commodities and contraction of the citizen’s purchasing power.

He stressed that the recent economic measures negatively affected the atmosphere of investment in Egypt during the current period, saying that the state of recession witnessed in the local markets of the country raises the fears of Egyptian investors. He added that the Central Bank increased the rates of interest raising the fears of investors of market volatility.

He also underestimated the Government Rationalization Program, saying that the Egyptian government will not implement any of its points. He added that they summoned Egypt’s Minister of Finance Amr Al Garhy to obtain a database over the money of the special funds, saying that they found 52 billion EGP in these funds.

Regarding the special funds of Egypt’s Ministry of Defense, he said that there are funds on which we cannot be briefed due to their sensitivity, while he expressed his confidence that the ministry has its strict rules in dealing with its money.

He added that the current performance of the government is not good, saying that there are a number of sectors that work to meet the recommendations of the parliamentary economic committee. He praised the performance of Minister of Supply Ali Al Mesilihy and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr.