European Direct Investment to The Energy Sector in Egypt in the Period from the year 1996 to 2006

Abstract

Over the last decade foreign direct investment has been of a major concern for developing countries as they compete to enhance their attractiveness for FDI in order to achieve development objectives and to limit external debts for financing local investment needs is becoming a ruk. Egypt enjoys many potentialities that enable it to be one of the most important African developing countries in luring FDI in respect to the enormous capacity of the Egyptian market, the presence of a wide industrial base and high qualified labor, Egypt is considered the main recipient of EU investments in the Mediterranean region with an average of 1 billion Euros annually, The Energy sector in Egypt has demonstrated its ability to attract a big portion of the European investments; specially Oil and natural gas operations like research and exploration, extraction represented the focal points for the orientation of European investments; however we must work on attracting more European investments to the renewable energy sectors, particularly solar energy given its capacity of Egypt's potential.