Former investment minister Osama Saleh has agreed to fill the same post in Egypt's new interim government,  Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported on Tuesday.

Saleh had served as investment minister from August 2012 until May 2013 in the government of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. He was then replaced by Yehia Hamed, a spokesperson for the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party, from which Morsi hails.

Born in 1960 and a graduate of Cairo University's faculty of commerce, Saleh served as chairman of Egypt's General Authority for Free Zones and Investment (GAFI), a governmental entity concerned with regulating and facilitating foreign and domestic investment, from 2009 until his instatement as minister.

Saleh told Al-Ahram on Tuesday that he accepted the post offered to him by Interim Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi after former tourism minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour turned it down.  Saleh said that despite this "difficult time" facing the country, he would complete the mission he had begun while in office, in particular by encouraging investment.

Saleh said he is confident that the general climate in Egypt will attract investments once the situation settles down,  referring to ongoing political unrest in the wake of Morsi’s ouster.