Egypt's Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin has conveyed that the value of foreign direct investment (FDI) amounted during the first half of this fiscal year to $ 7.8 billion. In comments delivered in Sharm el-Sheikh during a session on the investment opportunities in Egypt, Mohieddin said that Egypt has been able to lure some $21 billion in FDI since the start of the reform process in 2004 till the end of 2007.

According to him, investment grows by 40 percent annually on average. He mentioned that Egypt ranked first in luring FDI in Africa, which reached 8.5 percent of the GDP according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) statistics. The Egyptian minister said such growth in the FDI helped Egypt increase its foreign currency reserves.