CAIRO, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's sharp rise in global competitiveness ranking is the fruit of its economic reform, Egyptian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr said Thursday.
Addressing the opening session of the Middle East work group on investment held in Paris by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Nasr said Egypt jumped 15 notches in the 2017-2018 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum, the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation said in a statement.
Nasr also said that Egypt's ranking in the report's infrastructure index climbed by 25 places as a result of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi's vision that focuses on building mega infrastructure projects, including the Suez Canal Axis development project and new administrative capital.
Nasr attributed the rise in Egypt's competitiveness, the biggest by Arab countries in the report, to the ongoing economic reform and Egypt's efforts to improve the legislative and institutional framework of its investment environment.
Over the past years, Egypt has been suffering from an economic recession due to political instability and security issues that led to the decline of tourism, foreign currency reserves and foreign investment.
The Egyptian government started last year a strict three-year economic reform program, including the introduction of a full currency floating to tackle a shortage of foreign reserves, in addition to implementing austerity measures, fuel subsidy cuts and tax increases.
Egypt's reform program is supported by a 12-billion-U.S. dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund, a third of which has already been delivered to Egypt in two tranches in November 2016 and July 2017.
Egypt is also about to issue a final version of a long-awaited investment law that is expected to facilitate business startups and lure foreign investors.
