Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Group, which owns Zadna Agricultural Investment Company, plans to increase investments in Egypt’s agriculture sector to EGP 2bn over five years.
Saudi businessman Abdulwahab Saleh Al Rajhi, owner of Al Rajhi Group, consulted with Investment Minister Sahar Nasr on Friday evening in Cairo.
The minister stressed that Egypt welcomes Saudi investors, as Saudi Arabia leads the list of Arab countries investing in Egypt, and the Egyptian-Saudi Business Council intends to raise the ceiling of investments in Egypt to reach $51bn dollars from the Saudi government and private sectors.
Nasr pointed out that the new investment law focuses on five main pillars of increasing investment in Egypt, namely improving the business environment and reducing bureaucracy, electronic operation of the service provided to investors, improving the performance of the investment service centre, developing a clear investment policy and providing guarantees, strengthening governance and transparency, and providing investment incentives to certain geographical regions and competitive sectors to ensure sustainable development.
Al Rajhi and Nasr discussed the group’s investments in Egypt in the field of agriculture, olive production and processing, and the future plans of the group to expand in Egypt and increase its investments.
Al Rajhi praised the steps taken by Egypt to improve the investment environment, especially President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s ratification of the new investment law, pointing out that these steps push Zadna Company for Agricultural Investment and Real Estate Development to increase its investments in Egypt.
In a related context and within Nasr’s efforts to attract local and Arab investments, the minister met with Moataz Al Alfi, chairperson of the Egyptian-Kuwaiti Business Council and chairperson of the Egypt Kuwait Holding Company for Investment.
The two sides discussed the increase of Kuwaiti investments in Egypt. In this context, the minister explained that Egypt welcomes Kuwaiti investors, pointing out that there are many major investment opportunities in national projects, such as Suez Canal Economic Zone.
Al Alfi expressed his company’s intention to increase its investments, which contributes to the reliance on domestic production and the reduction of imports.