Speaking at the Egypt–Bahrain Business Forum, Heiba highlighted Egypt’s many competitive advantages for investors, including a workforce of more than 32 million people, a highly diversified economy, a strategic geographic location, competitive tax rates, robust infrastructure, and trade agreements with nearly 70 countries, giving Egyptian goods and services access to around 3 billion consumers worldwide.
Egypt is intensifying its efforts to attract foreign investment, a strategy that has placed the country 9th worldwide and 1st in Africa among the top destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI), with net inflows reaching $46.1 billion during the 2023–2024 fiscal year, according to Hossam Heiba, CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI).
Speaking at the Egypt–Bahrain Business Forum, Heiba highlighted Egypt’s many competitive advantages for investors, including a workforce of more than 32 million people, a highly diversified economy, a strategic geographic location, competitive tax rates, robust infrastructure, and trade agreements with nearly 70 countries, giving Egyptian goods and services access to around 3 billion consumers worldwide.
Heiba explained that GAFI’s strategy focuses on providing services, incentives, and investment frameworks tailored to the needs of various business sectors, in line with the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade’s strategic objective of increasing Egypt’s exports to $140 billion by 2030.
He also invited Bahraini businesses to explore the opportunities available in Egypt—whether through GAFI’s investment map featuring more than 1,200 projects or by conducting on-site visits to free and investment zones.
For his part, Samir Nass, Chairman of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, affirmed that the Bahraini business community closely follows developments in Egypt’s investment climate.
This growing confidence, he noted, has fueled stronger interest in partnerships with Egyptian counterparts, particularly in healthcare, education, digital transformation, and financial services—sectors where Bahrain holds strong expertise and competitive advantages.
Meanwhile, Walid Gamal El-Din, Chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), underscored the depth of bilateral trade and investment ties. He invited Bahraini investors to visit the zone, which he described as a fully integrated hub for manufacturing, services, and logistics.
Since its establishment in 2015, SCZONE has signed 311 project agreements worth $10.2 billion, including deals worth more than $6 billion in just the past 14 months.
