Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said Egypt seeks to open up new investment horizons with South Korea with a special focus on the development and technology and digital transformation sectors, adding that Egypt is paying significant attention to the education and health sectors as being key pillars to build Egyptian human capacities.

Maait made his comments during a meeting held Tuesday with Ambassador of South Korea in Egypt Hong Jin-wook to discuss economic cooperation between the two countries.

Maait stated that Egypt is eager to increase foreign investments in the domestic market, especially Korean ventures, through introducing more incentives and eliminating barriers investors may face.

He added that the such incentives are expected to spur foreign investors to expand their productive activities and provide new job opportunities.

During the meeting, Maait highlighted Egypt’s economic reform programme and its role in enhancing the structure of the Egyptian economy, saying that it helped Egypt to be the only country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to keep its credit rating and stable outlook as attested by Fitch and Standard and Poor's credit rating institutions, while other international institutions expect Egypt’s economic growth to soon return to 6.5 percent.

For his part, Ambassador Jin-wook praised Egypt’s efforts regarding reducing tax and customs barriers that Korean investors face in the domestic market, as well as Egypt’s economic reforms that have helped the country deal with the Covid-19 crisis successfully.

He added that South Korea is on hand to extend the required technical experience to Egypt for scaling up e-commerce in the domestic market.

In April, the South Korean government announced allocating $200,000 in emergency aid to support Egypt’s efforts in fighting Covid-19.

Korean investments in Egypt recently reached their highest ever level at $570 million, through 163 Korean companies working in Egypt in the services and industry sectors, according to Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation.