EUDiF
back button

Enhancing governmental capacity to attract expatriate investments into Egypt

With both their remittances and substantial capacity for investment, the more than 10 million Egyptians residing abroad are an important asset for Egypt’s economy. In recent years, Egyptian policymakers have created a more favourable environment to attract expatriate investment.

In 2020, the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI), in cooperation with the Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs, created an Expatriates Unit whose focus is to encourage Egyptian expatriate investment. Accordingly, in partnership with EUDiF, GAFI seeks to further strengthen its expertise in attracting expatriate investment. The action’s design and outputs can be of interest to other investment promotion agencies or government institutions working on expatriate investment.

Objective
The action aims to enhance GAFI’s understanding of Egyptian expatriate investment and develop their institutional capacities to attract investment sustainably into Egypt.
Duration
22 months
SDGs

In partnership with

Programme of activities

With this action, EUDiF aims to enrich GAFI's knowledge on good practices in attracting diaspora investment, and to eventually create a roadmap for the newly established Expatriates Unit with a strong communication and outreach component.

Benchmark study
Dec 21: Baseline assessment workshops

To assess GAFI's objectives, capacities, partners and current product offering in terms of diaspora investment.

Dec 21: "Good diaspora investment practices" workshops

To share with GAFI staff relevant practices other investment promotion agencies have implemented.

Apr 22: Benchmark research on diaspora investment good practices

To flesh out 10 practices on attracting diaspora investment conducted by other investment promotion agencies and stakeholders, including their key features, success factors and challenges.

Expatriate investment roadmap
Jan - Aug 22: Drafting workshop series

To define with GAFI the sections and content of the roadmap.

Oct 22: Peer exchange series

To learn from the successful experiences of the governments of Ireland and Morocco. Based on previous workshops and the benchmark, Ireland and Morocco were selected as comparable examples to the case of Egypt.

Nov 22: Interim roadmap production and presentation

To frame the diaspora engagement environment, the financial profile of the product to offer the diaspora and the profile of potential diaspora investors.

Communication
Mar 22: Baseline assessment workshop

To define GAFI's communication objectives that include better understanding how diaspora is engaging in Egypt and their financial profile.

Dec 22: Communication plan

The plan included different diaspora outreach approaches depending on the profile of the diaspora in question.

Feb – Nov 23: Pilot of communication activities

A test run of elements of the communication plan such as establishing initial contact with diaspora groups through emails, calls and events. The team also ran a survey to collect information about diaspora members interested in investing in Egypt.

Nov 23: Final roadmap production & presentation

The final roadmap consolidates the interim roadmap with results from the communication activities, and were presented by the expert to GAFI staff in a final workshop.

“We believe that the new knowledge and skills we have gained through our engagement with the EUDiF program can be directly applied to our day-to-day work. We are confident that these learnings will significantly enhance our capacity to communicate effectively with expatriates.”
GAFI’s Expatriates Investment Unit team

Results

GAFI assessed their capacities at the start and end of the action, showing how the various activities have helped to accelerate their knowledge and practical skills in areas essential to achieving their long-term objectives.

EUDiF actions are designed to plug into a partner's existing vision and/or workplan, in order to help enhance, catalyse, or accelerate initiatives in a way the partner will be able to maintain beyond the end of the action. This is why the focus is on enhancing capacities, rather than providing a finished product on behalf of the partner. No partner ever begins from zero capacities, but the progress made during the course of an action can have a huge impact on its operations.

Capacity development

Growth acceleration (km/h)
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Knowledge about
Good investment attraction practices
Peers and their investment practices
Effective communication with expatriates
Egyptians expatriate networks in the EU
Tools to
Implement the roadmap to attract expatriates investment
Communicate with the expatriate community
Disseminate a survey effectively
Monitor and evaluate expatriate investment attraction activities
Baseline assessment (Month 1) Endline assessment ( Month 22 )
5
resource persons
11
key documents
+200
audience

Updates

News • Middle East
New partnership to support Egypt attract expatriate investments
Read more
Blog • Middle East
Expert voice: Leon Isaacs on supporting governments to attract diaspora investment
Read more
News
New survey on investment for Egyptian expatriates
Read more
News • Middle East
Celebrating Arab Expatriates Day & our Middle East portfolio
Read more

Sign up for the EUDiF newsletter

* Required field

Request for
diaspora expertise
Message
Apply now
Message
Send request
Apply for expert support
Message
Want to know more about our diaspora development experts?
Learn more
Expert login
Sign in
Want to know how
to become a diaspora expert?
Learn more