Egypt In-Focus — New $3bn investments from Qatar negotiated; Egypt mulls Panda bonds

Egypt In-Focus — New $3bn investments from Qatar negotiated; Egypt mulls Panda bonds

CAIRO: Egypt's Finance Minister Mohammed Maait has confirmed negotiations about Qatar’s new investment of up to $3 billion in the Egyptian economy, Ashraq reported. The confirmation comes after Qatar announced a package of investments worth $5 billion in the Egyptian market at the beginning of the year. Maait also announced that Egypt is studying the issuance of Panda bonds for the Chinese market during the first half of the next fiscal year 2022/23, without specifying the value of this issuance. A Panda bond is a Chinese renminbi-denominated bond from a non-Chinese issuer, sold in China. The finance minister also expects Egypt’s remittances from abroad to reach about $31-$32 billion by the end of the current fiscal year. These remittances represent one of the most important sources of foreign exchange for Egypt, along with tourism, the Suez Canal, and exports. The finance minister also spoke out against foreign purchases of Treasury Bills, which he referred to as "Hot Money", while pushing for increased foreign direct investments. T-bills have shown their instability during worldwide shocks, where $15 billion were lost in 2018, and another $20 billion during the pandemic outbreak, he noted. Egypt met with another setback due to the Russian-Ukrainian war,