Qatar to invest $1.5bn in Egypt’s industrial sector

Reuters/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Qatar will invest $1.5 billion in Egypt’s industrial sector in 2024, according to Egyptian commercial service chief Yahya Al-Wathiq Billah.

This is the first investment by the Gulf nation in Egypt since signing a bilateral agreement in March 2022, Egypt Today newspaper reported.

Billah said that trade volume between the countries increased by 47 percent in 2022.

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Speaking at the Qatar-Egypt Investment Forum, Qatar’s minister of commerce and industry Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim said the country has already invested over $5.5 billion in Egypt’s financial, real estate and energy sectors.

In addition, Saud Omar Al Mana, CEO of Qatari Al Mana Group, revealed plans to inject initial investments worth $60 million into Egypt throughout 2024.

In October, Baladna, listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange, and the Suez Canal Authority signed a memorandum of cooperation for investments of up to $1.5 billion in a farming project in Egypt.

Cairo has long struggled to attract foreign investors. In July it introduced a new investment law, after announcing its intention to sell a raft of state assets to private investors to raise $40 billion over the next four years.

Qatar pledged $5 billion to the North African nation in March 2022, and “we are committed to that,” Finance Minister Ali Al-Kuwari told Bloomberg TV.