Egypt ranks as top destination in MEA region for FDIs in 2022

CAIRO - 17 May 2023: Egypt ranked as the largest destination for mega projects by amount of capital investment, as a result of mega green hydrogen projects being announced. This is according to fDi Insights’ 2023 report.

The report states that the number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects into Egypt increased by more than 150 percent to reach 148 projects in 2022, representing an estimated capital investment of $107 billion.

Egypt attracted more than $96.8 billion in such projects last year, which is close to three times that of its previous record of $34.9 billion in 2016.

Egypt was able to secure 19 such investments from companies establishing green hydrogen developments, mostly in its Suez Canal Economic Zone.

Capital investment in renewables saw a 158 percent increase over the past year, the sector was able to attract $210 billion more than the previous year, according to the report.

The capital influx is directly related to 17 green hydrogen projects, accounting for 97 percent of Egypt’s total inbound capital investment in 2022.

With regards to FDI projects numbers, Egypt grew from an average of 3.5 mega projects per year between 2013 and 2021 to 19 mega investments.

This represents a 41 percent market share in the MEA region and places Egypt as the top destination country for capital-intensive FDI in the region, and second globally in 2022.

These projects include India-based solar energy company Acme Group’s $13 billion, 2.2 billion tonnes per annum green hydrogen plant in Ain Sokhna, part of the Suez Canal Special Economic Zone, as well as Australian mining giant Fortescue’s green energy arm Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) which has pledged up to $10 billion until 2030. The state’s contribution to FFI’s plans ranges between $500 million and $630 million.

Another project, India-based Acme Group is to construct a $13 billion green hydrogen plant in Ain Sokhna, part of the Suez Canal Special Economic Zone. The plant, to be built over 4.5 million square meters sqm, will produce 2.2 billion tonnes of green hydrogen annually.

In addition to that, UK-based Globeleq Generation intends to build a 3.6-gigawatt (GW) hydrogen production hub within the Suez Canal Economic Zone. The hub is to be powered by 9GW of wind and solar capacity within the zone. The $11 billion green fuel production plant will be located on an area of 10 million sqm and have a production capacity of two million tonnes annually.