Egypt’s GAFI wins OCO Global Innovation Award in ESG category

16 / 06 / 2023

By Marwa Nassar - -

Egypt’s General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) was named as the winner of the OCO Global Innovation Award in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) category.

GAFI was selected out of 74 Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) included in the IPA Innovation Index 2023 “The Future of FDI: How to Attract, Measure and Sustain Quality FDI” of the OCO Global – World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA).

OCO Global wrote on its Linkedin account “Congratulations to Hossam Heiba, the team at the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) for their impressive work in this area, particularly for capturing 4 of the top 10 largest foreign investment deals in renewables in 2022.”

GAFI has been involved in a number of international collaborations in renewable energy in order to lure investors, according OCO Global.

Hossam Heiba, the CEO of GAFI, expressed his gratitude to the report’s authors for acknowledging the efforts made by the Egyptian government and GAFI in attracting more FDIs in various sectors with positive developmental, environmental, and social impact.

Heiba expected more foreign direct investments to flow faster into Egypt in the coming period in light a package of reform decisions that has been recently taken by the government.

These decisions include the formation of the Higher Investment Council, the establishment of the Golden License Unit within GAFI, and the extensive use of technology to promote investment by continuously updating the available investment opportunities on Egypt’s investment map and digitizing and automating services provided to investors.

Egypt’s success in attracting investments in the green economy sector was crowned by its inclusion in the list of the top ten largest green economy projects for 2022, launched by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which includes four projects within Egypt.

This reflects the country’s commitment to sustainable development and responsible investment.