Steadfast Alliance has positioned itself to take advantage of the opportunities born out of the reforms that have accelerated the Egyptian economy in the years since the Nazif government took over in 2004. Steadfast Alliance's creators and managers believe that the nature of those reforms means that Egypt's economy is far from finished moving forward and that it will continue to mature in the coming years.
Having registered GDP growth rates of more than 7 percent in each of the past two years, the Egyptian economy is on track to surpass the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and global averages in 2008-09.
With its reform-minded government, Egypt is reaping the benefits of liberalization, which has brought about significant improvements to the business environment. The results: A place among the top 10 developing nations in attracting FDI in 2007 and 2008 with a total US$ 11.1 billion in funds invested in 2006-07 and US$ 13.2 in 2007-08. Unemployment has dropped into the single digits, per-capita income has nearly doubled and sectors ranging from construction to tourism and from agriculture to information technology have grown significantly.
Since 2004, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif's cabinet has worked to increase the quality and efficiency of the country's basic infrastructure, simplify the tax code, increase transparency and cut red tape, transforming Egypt into one of the leading investment destinations in the MENA region.
While flags have been raised concerning Egypt's ability to achieve continued growth in light of the global financial crisis, members of the cabinet's economic team, including the ministers of Investment and Finance, have been quite firm in their statements that the impact of the meltdown will not be as severe on Egypt as elsewhere in the world where growth is on its way to a slow halt. The government's reform program will continue and growth is not expected to dip much below 6% in the foreseeable future. This growth is supported by the momentum of investments that have already been initiated as well as by the huge number of companies that have been established over the past three years.
Egypt has a fully-functioning financial system, ample liquidity, and an agile economy that should help it cruise at close to 6% for the coming period. According to Egyptian Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin, continuing to attract adequate levels of foreign direct investment (FDI) is going to be a key goal in the coming period. Egypt's target FDI for 2008-09 is US$ 10 billion, which is the average of the total FDI levels it has attracted over the past three years.
The government is also looking into putting several incentives in place to attract foreign investors in sectors including agriculture and tourism. In a global business climate that is full of uncertainty, Egypt offers investors the safety net of a stable growth rate, a supportive business environment and a financial sector that is ready to support and partner with incoming investors.
Triple-E Fund being the first project to directly target the investment of European funds into the Egyptian economy, Steadfast Alliance aims to capitalize on some of the opportunities that the Egyptian market has to offer.