Egyptian Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin said Sunday his government plans to launch 21 new investment free zones in the coming period.
The country has 12 such zones involving investments of up to 73 billion Egyptian pounds and employing 344,000 workers, the minister said in his address to a conference on investment zones in Egypt.
The conference is being organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Investment in cooperation with the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) program of the World Bank.
“Investors always seek greater administrative facilities which are available at the investment economic, industrial and commercial free zones,” the minister pointed out.
“The economic reforms adopted by the Egyptian government reduced the red tape dramatically and helped lure up to USD 13 billion of foreign direct investment in the last four years,” he noted.
“The number of enterprises based on the free zone system topped 1,127 by the end of March,” he said, expecting the free economic zone located to the northwest of the Gulf of Suez to attract major global investors due to its promising potentials.
Mohieddin added that his ministry planned to launch a fund for promoting investment and backing up the small and medium enterprises with a capital of one billion pounds.
