Egypt Expects ‘Remarkable’ Increase in Direct Investment

Hossam Haiba, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), and other officials during a ceremony granting a golden license to establish a home appliances factory. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Hossam Haiba, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), and other officials during a ceremony granting a golden license to establish a home appliances factory. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Egypt Expects ‘Remarkable’ Increase in Direct Investment

Hossam Haiba, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), and other officials during a ceremony granting a golden license to establish a home appliances factory. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Hossam Haiba, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), and other officials during a ceremony granting a golden license to establish a home appliances factory. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Hossam Haiba, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), expected the Egyptian market to achieve a remarkable increase in direct investment in the coming period, following the huge presidential and governmental support to investment.

Haiba handed over two golden licenses to two manufacturers specializing in the production of home appliances and durable goods on the 10th of Ramadan City, bringing the total number of companies that obtained the golden license to 15 so far.

GAFI CEO emphasized that the future goal is that all investors obtain the golden license, to start pumping investments and establishing factories in the shortest time possible.

A statement issued by the GAFI revealed that the first golden license was received by Umit Günel, General Manager of Beko LLC. According to the license, Beko will establish a factory for the manufacture and assembly of durable consumer goods and electrical appliances.

The second license was received by Luis Alvarez, CEO of BSH Home Appliances, Egypt, and the owner of the trademark (Bosch), with the aim of establishing a factory for cookers and refrigerators.

Beko Egypt plans to complete the first phase of the factory by the end of this year, at an investment cost of USD 107 million. The factory will provide 1,300 direct job opportunities.

BSH Egypt will complete the first phase of its industrial project in the last quarter of next year, at an investment cost of 50 million euros ($53.5 million), creating 500 jobs.

The golden license is an all-inclusive approval whereby an enterprise can establish, operate and manage its project. It encompasses many permits including building permits and permits to allocate the necessary real estate for the project.

It is granted by a decree of the government to companies that establish strategic or national projects contributing to Egypt’s development.

During the past fiscal year 2021/2022, GAFI facilitated the procedures for establishing about 31,000 companies, in addition to facilitating the procedures for increasing the capital of another 2,000, with an increase of 9.4 percent in the number of firms.

Haiba added that the main factors that contributed to the decision to grant the golden license to the two companies are their plans to localize the technology of manufacturing home appliances in the Egyptian market and the target to export a large part of the products to foreign markets.

Such factors are consistent with Egypt's Vision 2030 and boost the Egyptian economy, he added.



Washington Urges Israel to Extend Cooperation with Palestinian Banks

A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
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Washington Urges Israel to Extend Cooperation with Palestinian Banks

A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)
A West Bank Jewish settlement is seen in the background, while a protestor waves a Palestinian flag during a protest against Israel's separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin in 2012. (AP)

The United States on Thursday called on Israel to extend its cooperation with Palestinian banks for another year, to avoid blocking vital transactions in the occupied West Bank.

"I am glad that Israel has allowed its banks to continue cooperating with Palestinian banks, but I remain convinced that a one-year extension of the waiver to facilitate this cooperation is needed," US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday, on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Rio de Janeiro.

In May, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened to cut off a vital banking channel between Israel and the West Bank in response to three European countries recognizing the State of Palestine.

On June 30, however, Smotrich extended a waiver that allows cooperation between Israel's banking system and Palestinian banks in the occupied West Bank for four months, according to Israeli media, according to AFP.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported that the decision on the waiver was made at a cabinet meeting in a "move that saw Israel legalize several West Bank settlement outposts."

The waiver was due to expire at the end of June, and the extension permitted Israeli banks to process payments for salaries and services to the Palestinian Authority in shekels, averting a blow to a Palestinian economy already devastated by the war in Gaza.

The Israeli threat raised serious concerns in the United States, which said at the time it feared "a humanitarian crisis" if banking ties were cut.

According to Washington, these banking channels are key to nearly $8 billion of imports from Israel to the West Bank, including electricity, water, fuel and food.