The Egyptian government has unveiled an ambitious long-term strategy to attract over 4,110 billion Egyptian pounds—approximately €74 billion—in private investment over the next two decades through a comprehensive expansion of its investment zones.
Egypt’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Mohamed Farid, officially presented the plan on Tuesday to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. The roadmap focuses on accelerating the development of specialized commercial hubs, strengthening public–private partnerships, streamlining bureaucratic administrative procedures, and improving the broader business climate to effectively boost both domestic and foreign currency inflows.
Currently, Egypt operates 12 functional investment zones distributed across six governorates, which collectively host 1,277 active projects, represent roughly 66.3 billion Egyptian pounds in capital, and sustain about 77,500 jobs. To scale this model, seven additional zones are already under development in three other governorates and are slated to accommodate 214 new projects. Authorities estimate that the entire nationwide program will ultimately generate up to 1.2 million jobs over a 20-year period, positioning these specialized hubs as a primary engine to accelerate industrialization and maximize export capacity across key manufacturing sectors.
This expansion represents a distinct shift in Egypt’s economic model, moving away from traditional free zones that rely primarily on tax and customs exemptions. Instead, the new investment zones are built around fully integrated industrial infrastructure, ready-to-operate physical units, and a unified one-stop-shop system engineered to drastically reduce administrative bottlenecks. Furthermore, Minister Farid highlighted ongoing progress on a specialized digital platform that will soon allow international and domestic investors to complete and track all necessary regulatory procedures remotely.
The initiative launches at a critical time as Cairo works to expand the role of the private sector to counter domestic inflationary pressures and meet external financing needs. In tandem with these regulatory overhauls, Egypt is actively deepening economic ties with international partners. Minister Farid pointed to recent fruitful outcomes from the Egypt–Belarus joint commission, which focused on advancing bilateral trade in mechanical industries, heavy equipment, automotive vehicles, and the agrifood sector. Additionally, a recent bilateral business forum brought together 24 Egyptian companies to explore immediate, collaborative opportunities in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and industrial processing.
MK/AK/Sf/lb/abj/APA