House Economic Committee will split proposed Investment Act into two bills: The House of Representative’s Economics Committee has decided to split the Investment Act into two separate bills: A primary 50-article bill concerned solely with investors and another 55- or 57-article bill to organize investment procedures and outline the role of state entities, such as the General Authority for Free Zones and Investment (GAFI) and the Supreme Investment Council, Economic Committee Chair Amr Ghallab tells Al Borsa. The committee expects to complete the process — which mainly aims to simplify the law for investors — by the end of this week and has the Investment Ministry’s full support, Ghallab adds, explaining that Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr and GAFI boss Mohamed Khodeir will meet with MPs this week to provide their input. Ghallab hopes to have both bills before a plenary session vote by mid-April. MPs will be meeting with business associations this week to seal the fate of private free zones, which the Economic Committee is leaning more towards leaving out.

Meanwhile, Foreign direct investment in Egypt reached USD 4.3 bn in 1H2016-17, rising USD 1.2 from USD 3.2 bn during the same period the previous fiscal year, Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr said, according to Al Borsa. Finance Minister Amr El Garhy had told Reuters last week that FDI will hit USD 13-15 bn in FY2017-18, which would be the highest volume of FDI in Egypt’s history.