In a press conference at the Cabinet headquarters in the New Administrative Capital, PM Madbouly explained that the government has received $1,65 billion and an equivalent of the remainder $250 million in Egyptian pound for the shares sold so far in some state-owned entities, including Telecom Egypt.

The prime minister added that more deals worth $1 billion would be announced soon.

In January 2023, Madbouly announced that 32 Egyptian state-owned companies will be listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) and also sold for strategic investors within a year.

PM Madbouly said the government has finalized completing 25 percent of the first phase of the IPO programme.

He added that the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation will advise the government in preparing 50 more companies to join the IPO programme.

Madbouly also revealed that Egypt targets $191 billion in US dollar revenues in 2026, up from the current figure of $70 billion.

The target includes $88 billion from commodity exports, $20 billion from tourism, $45 billion from remittances, $13 billion from the FDIs, $17 billion from the Suez Canal and other maritime services, and $9 billion from outsourcing services in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

He also added that the government target an annual increase in exports of 20 percent, up from 16 percent currently.

Egypt plans to refund 35-55 percent of income tax to investors within five years from the start of projects. The government will also shoulder 50 percent of the costs of utilities used in projects for up to 10 years.

Speaking at the press conference, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said revealed that the government has put projects worth $247 billion on hold in the areas of housing, road networks, and ICT in order to address curent shortages in hard currency.

Budget deficits and revenues
 

Meanwhile, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said that the budget deficit increased to 6.2 percent in FY2022/2023, recording EGP 618 billion, due to the raising of interest rates domestically as well as the increase in the price of the US dollar vis-a-vis the Egyptian pound.

However, Maait added, budget revenues grew by 11.5 percent in FY2022/2023 over FY2021/2022, recording EGP 1.5 trillion.

Tax revenues also rose by 22 percent in the same period, recording EGP 1.2 trillion, he said.

Egypt has attained an initial budget surplus of 1.6 percent (EGP 157 billion) in FY2022/2023, compared to 1.4 percent (EGP 100 billion) in the previous fiscal year, Maait added.