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Egypt becomes first Arab, African country signing OECD investment declaration |
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08:08, July 12, 2007 |
Egypt on Wednesday signed in Paris the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is seen as a new stage for the country to lure more foreign investments, the official MENA news agency reported.
Egyptian Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieddin and OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria signed the declaration during a ceremony held at the organization's headquarters in Paris, which makes Egypt the first Arab and African country to ink such declaration, said the report.
Gurria hailed the Egyptian reform process, saying political reforms carried out by the Egyptian government from 2001 to 2006 led to a 15-fold increase in foreign investments.
Signing the declaration will lure more foreign direct investments (FDI) to Egypt, said Gurria.
For his part, Mohieddin said that Egypt exerted great efforts to carry out reforms over the past eight years to join the OECD's investment committee.
Egypt will seek joining more OECD committees, he said, urging Arab and African countries to follow Egypt's example.
FDI in Egypt is expected to hit record high of more than 10 billion U.S. dollars in the fiscal year of 2006/07 ending in June, local newspaper The Egyptian Gazette reported Wednesday.
Foreign investment in Egypt has increased greatly in the past five years due to reform measures of the Egyptian government in areas such as privatization of state-owned assets, tax, customs and banking.
In the fiscal year of 2002/03, foreign companies invested only 0.7 billion dollars in Egypt and by the end of last fiscal year of 2005/06, FDI in the country climbed to 6.1 billion dollars, said the report.
Source: Xinhua
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