EGYPT – Egypt has once again topped the list of largest recipients of foreign direct investments in Africa with total foreign investments amounting to US$9 billion, according to a new UNCTAD report.

The report comes at a time when the Board of Directors of the Saudi Arabia Grant Committee agreed to finance five new projects in Egypt.

According to Egypt Today, The Saudi Arabia grant comes with a total value of $200 million, to contribute to financing small, medium and micro projects in Egypt.

The United Nations Trade and Development Organization (UNCTAD), report titled “Global Investment 2020”, notes that economic reforms undertaken by the Egyptian government have improved macroeconomic stability and boosted investor confidence in the country.

Furthermore, the report noted that the Egyptian government has drafted new investment legislation that obliges all companies to provide information and data in order to audit the foreign investment account.

The Global Investment 2020 report explained that the US$9 billion foreign direct investment was an increase of 11 percent compared to the amount invested during the same period in 2018.

According to the UNCTAD report, this was a great improvement particularly due to the fact that there was a decrease in foreign direct investment flows to North Africa which only amounted to US$14 billion.

The UNCTAD report also pointed out that although foreign direct investment was still driven by the oil and gas industry, investment was made in the non-oil economy as well, especially in communications, consumer goods and real estate.

The report further noted that Egypt ranked first in Africa in re-investing the profits of foreign companies by 41 percent

According to the UNCTAD report, reinvested profits from multinational companies represent a remarkable share of foreign direct investment inflows to the economies of the countries of the continent.

This according to Global Investment 2020 will impact the amount of foreign direct investments flowing to the continent in 2020 as the profits realized by many multinationals in the continent are expected to fall significantly due to the COVID19 pandemic.

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