Also coming from the Spring Meetings — Sahar Nasr schooled CNN’s ever-annoying Richard Quest as the grating host tried to paint Egypt as an unstable investment destination: Nasr expertly fended off CNN host Richard Quest’s bid to play up controversy surrounding the presidential election and his hints that political instability would drive away investment. She pointed out during live coverage of the meetings on Friday that the stability of Egypt was underpinned by the economic reform program, which has been praised by the IMF and the World Bank and is reflected in their outlook on the Egyptian economy. She countered his point on the economic hardships faced as a result of the reforms by noting that a crucial pillar of the reforms is expanding the social safety net. Asked whether regional instability would scare others from investing in Egypt, Nasr responded that the result would be the contrary: As an island of stability in the Mideast, Egypt is becoming a hub for regional investors. You can watch an excerpt from the interview here (watch, runtime: 0:29) or read the transcript of the interview here.

Our take: FDI figures have not lived up to expectations, but we see this as a function of foreign investors sitting on the sidelines waiting for the signal that domestic businesses are investing. And with capex being financed at credit-card interest rates since the float of the EGP, that hasn’t happened. With expectations of another 200-300 bps in interest rate cuts this year, borrowing will become feasible for domestic businesses later this year and into 2019, and should trigger a wave of FDI in the second half in 2019 and beyond. In the meantime, the government has done the right thing passing pro-business legislation including the Bankruptcy Act and the new Investment Act. The challenge for the government is now to go beyond the ‘obvious’ headline stuff and dive deeply into industry-level legislation that will spur growth.

What the lobby groups are saying after the spring meetings: Some admit that regional instability and security issues in Egypt have delayed plans by foreign companies to invest. US companies had been anticipating the right business climate to take root before committing any investments, said former AmCham President Anis Aclimandos, who added that we are fast approaching a time where they will get over their skittishness. A number of them were put off by regional instability and the war on terrorism in Sinai, but there are now a number of large US energy, chemicals and transportation companies exploring new investments. Egypt-US Business Council Chairman Omar Mehanna concurs, suggesting that we should expect announcements by leading US firms drawn by the economic reforms. Egyptian-French Business Council head Fouad Younes suggests that French President Emmanuel Macron’s planned visit in May is a harbinger of future investment. GCC investors, with experience traversing the region, are unfazed by the political risk, with Egyptian-Saudi Business Council member Hamdy Abdel Aziz noting that the GCC sees political risk in places like Turkey as far greater than that of Egypt.