The Egyptian government has approved a draft law to launch the country’s first ever sovereign wealth fund (SWF).
According to the draft, the SWF will have $11.34 billion in initial capital, derived from state assets, and will be authorised to establish its own sub-funds and invest in other similar funds.
It will be managed by the Planning Ministry, which will work with other ministries and government departments to identify the state’s unused assets to be included in the fund, believed to be around 3,000 in number.
The purpose of the SWF is to contribute to the country’s sustainable development, make more efficient use of public resources and improve the country’s sovereign credit status, said Planning Minister Hala al-Saeed.
The draft law follows the announcement in March from Egypt’s Minister of Public Enterprise, Khaled Badawi, that plans were afoot to establish a fund to manage a number of state assets that would be floated on the Egyptian stock exchange.
It was also recently announced by Egyptian Finance Minister Amr al-Jarhi that Egypt is aiming to issue between $6 and $7 billion in international bonds in 2018 and 2019.
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