CAIRO: Egypt’s Finance Minister Mohammed Maait has confirmed negotiations about Qatar’s new investment of up to $3 billion in the Egyptian economy, Ashraq reported.
The confirmation comes after Qatar announced a package of investments worth $5 billion in the Egyptian market at the beginning of the year.
Egypt mulls plan to issue Panda bonds
Maait also announced that Egypt is studying the issuance of Panda bonds for the Chinese market during the first half of the next fiscal year 2022/23, without specifying the value of this issuance.
A Panda bond is a Chinese renminbi-denominated bond from a non-Chinese issuer, sold in China.
The finance minister also expects Egypt’s remittances from abroad to reach about $31-$32 billion by the end of the current fiscal year.
These remittances represent one of the most important sources of foreign exchange for Egypt, along with tourism, the Suez Canal, and exports.
Drawbacks of “Hot Money”
The finance minister also spoke out against foreign purchases of Treasury Bills, which he referred to as “Hot Money”, while pushing for increased foreign direct investments.
T-bills have shown their instability during worldwide shocks, where $15 billion were lost in 2018, and another $20 billion during the pandemic outbreak, he noted.
Egypt met with another setback due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, losing another $20 billion in T-bills, Al Arabiya reported.
Egyptian Prime Minister discusses car shortage crisis
Prime Minister Mohammed Madbouly has opened discussions on the car shortage crisis in Egypt.
The involved entities — car companies, and banks — have come together to figure out a solution for the disruption in the supply chain.
In addition to this, they discussed how the Egyptian government could relieve import restrictions on foreign cars, following the Russian-Ukrainian war.
As the car sales declined for a second month in a row since April, the Egyptian government has promised to restore these lost sales and meet the country’s requirement of food and cars from abroad.