Lebanese investors target $10B investments in Egypt

CAIRO – 30 August 2017: The Egyptian-Lebanese Businessmen Friendship Association (ELBA) is looking forward to increasing investment in Egypt to reach $10 billion, ELBA’s president Marawan Zantout said Wednesday.

During a conference organized by ELBA to discuss investment opportunities in Egypt, attended by Minister of Investment Sahar Nasr, Zantout said that there are several procedural and legislative challenges facing Lebanese investors in Egypt, related to industrial land plots, business licenses and commercial frauds.

The association was established in 1992 to improve economic and investment relations between Cairo and Beirut.

Over 25 years, the number of Lebanese projects in Egypt had reached 1,400 projects, with Lebanon ranking the 13th largest foreign investor in the country, at $3.7 billion in investments.

In the first four months of 2017, Egyptian exports to Lebanon recorded $235 million, 50 percent more than the same period last year.

Egypt and Lebanon struck a $3 million contract under which Egypt will export readymade clothes to Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and a number of West African states, Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil announced in July.

A Lebanese fashion design company will depend on Egypt in manufacturing clothes, which will be sold in the aforementioned countries.