.
The U.S. Government is committed to supporting a prosperous Egyptian economy. We do this through diplomatic engagement, development assistance to the Egyptian government and private sector, and financial backing to businesses looking to invest in Egypt through the U.S. Export-Import Bank and U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Our goal is straightforward: to promote shared prosperity and the kind of inclusive, sustainable growth that benefits the U.S. as well as Egypt. Working together, we all prosper.
We want to promote shared prosperity across the Middle East, but particularly in Egypt, which is the region’s largest market and a bellwether for developments elsewhere in the region. Egypt’s large youth population and its high unemployment represent a challenge the government must address to ensure long term social and political stability. By supporting a strong and more inclusive economy in Egypt, we not only support U.S. investment growth potential, but also safety and security in the region.
President al-Sisi and his economic cabinet have taken many steps to return Egypt to its pre-2011 levels of economic growth, including stabilizing its macro-economy, improving the business climate, and laying the foundations for the kind of balanced growth that can build investor confidence. President al-Sisi’s team has launched serious tax reforms and a first round of energy subsidy reforms. In addition, a new Investment Law that aims to cut red tape for company registration and project licensing is in the process of being implemented. But, much still needs to be done, and Egypt will need to continue implementing fiscal reforms to free up resources for spending on vital infrastructure, education, and healthcare priorities.
The U.S. government is providing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic support funding to encourage economic growth in Egypt. This April, we launched the $250 million Higher Education Initiative to help train young Egyptian students in the skills necessary for success in the global economy. We have also provided over $40 million in the last two years to support one-stop-shops for business services, reducing the time it takes to formalize a small business from 37 days to 8 days, as well as nearly $40 million to train entrepreneurs and support small and medium enterprises. These projects build on past U.S. assistance successes, including USAID support for microfinance institutions that have issued over 10 million loans worth more than $2.6 billion to more than 4 million microenterprises, and our trade promotion activities helped Egyptian exports from Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZs) top $800 million in 2014 and directly supported 280,000 Egyptian jobs.
U.S. companies are playing a leading role in Egypt’s economic recovery, negotiating billions of dollars in sales and partnering with Egypt to invest across an array of sectors, including energy and power infrastructure, consumer products, health care, and information technology. In 2014, U.S. companies invested more than $2 billion in Egypt, and billions of dollars in new U.S. investments were announced at the Egypt Economic Development Conference in March 2015, on top of roughly $35 billion in additional foreign investment. This is an impressive beginning, and both domestic and international investment in Egypt could grow dramatically as the government makes clear that it intends to stay the course on its ambitious economic reform agenda.
Staying the course means the Government of Egypt must take further steps to improve and sustain a welcoming investment climate and to build the kind of entrepreneurial environment that allows Egypt’s small and medium enterprises – key employment generators – to flourish. Specifically, expanding access to financial services in the formal financial sector and implementing solid bankruptcy legislation are critical to this effort. Strengthening intellectual property right protections – the lifeblood of a strong, dynamic economy that rewards innovation – is key, as is adopting measures to boost government transparency and control access to foreign exchange.
Trade and investment are the engines of strong economies. Wisely channeled, they create growth that is sustainable and inclusive, that lifts living standards, and that helps to build strong communities. The American private sector is eager to be a catalyst in Egypt’s economic development. I hope the al-Sisi administration understands the critical importance of sustaining the reform process and has the political will to continue and deepen tough but necessary economic reforms.
Ambassador David Thorne is Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State. You may find him on Twitter @Amb_Thorne.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
a global affairs media network
Shared Prosperity: Economic Reform Presents U.S. Investment Opportunities
Cairo, Oct 14: The bustling capital city of Egypt becomes more alive after the sun set. October 14, 2014, Cairo, Egypt
September 3, 2015
The U.S. Government is committed to supporting a prosperous Egyptian economy. We do this through diplomatic engagement, development assistance to the Egyptian government and private sector, and financial backing to businesses looking to invest in Egypt through the U.S. Export-Import Bank and U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Our goal is straightforward: to promote shared prosperity and the kind of inclusive, sustainable growth that benefits the U.S. as well as Egypt. Working together, we all prosper.
We want to promote shared prosperity across the Middle East, but particularly in Egypt, which is the region’s largest market and a bellwether for developments elsewhere in the region. Egypt’s large youth population and its high unemployment represent a challenge the government must address to ensure long term social and political stability. By supporting a strong and more inclusive economy in Egypt, we not only support U.S. investment growth potential, but also safety and security in the region.
President al-Sisi and his economic cabinet have taken many steps to return Egypt to its pre-2011 levels of economic growth, including stabilizing its macro-economy, improving the business climate, and laying the foundations for the kind of balanced growth that can build investor confidence. President al-Sisi’s team has launched serious tax reforms and a first round of energy subsidy reforms. In addition, a new Investment Law that aims to cut red tape for company registration and project licensing is in the process of being implemented. But, much still needs to be done, and Egypt will need to continue implementing fiscal reforms to free up resources for spending on vital infrastructure, education, and healthcare priorities.
The U.S. government is providing hundreds of millions of dollars in economic support funding to encourage economic growth in Egypt. This April, we launched the $250 million Higher Education Initiative to help train young Egyptian students in the skills necessary for success in the global economy. We have also provided over $40 million in the last two years to support one-stop-shops for business services, reducing the time it takes to formalize a small business from 37 days to 8 days, as well as nearly $40 million to train entrepreneurs and support small and medium enterprises. These projects build on past U.S. assistance successes, including USAID support for microfinance institutions that have issued over 10 million loans worth more than $2.6 billion to more than 4 million microenterprises, and our trade promotion activities helped Egyptian exports from Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZs) top $800 million in 2014 and directly supported 280,000 Egyptian jobs.
U.S. companies are playing a leading role in Egypt’s economic recovery, negotiating billions of dollars in sales and partnering with Egypt to invest across an array of sectors, including energy and power infrastructure, consumer products, health care, and information technology. In 2014, U.S. companies invested more than $2 billion in Egypt, and billions of dollars in new U.S. investments were announced at the Egypt Economic Development Conference in March 2015, on top of roughly $35 billion in additional foreign investment. This is an impressive beginning, and both domestic and international investment in Egypt could grow dramatically as the government makes clear that it intends to stay the course on its ambitious economic reform agenda.
Staying the course means the Government of Egypt must take further steps to improve and sustain a welcoming investment climate and to build the kind of entrepreneurial environment that allows Egypt’s small and medium enterprises – key employment generators – to flourish. Specifically, expanding access to financial services in the formal financial sector and implementing solid bankruptcy legislation are critical to this effort. Strengthening intellectual property right protections – the lifeblood of a strong, dynamic economy that rewards innovation – is key, as is adopting measures to boost government transparency and control access to foreign exchange.
Trade and investment are the engines of strong economies. Wisely channeled, they create growth that is sustainable and inclusive, that lifts living standards, and that helps to build strong communities. The American private sector is eager to be a catalyst in Egypt’s economic development. I hope the al-Sisi administration understands the critical importance of sustaining the reform process and has the political will to continue and deepen tough but necessary economic reforms.
Ambassador David Thorne is Senior Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State. You may find him on Twitter @Amb_Thorne.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
