Security situation in Egypt: Is Egypt finally secure for investments?

The new Egyptian leader seems to have eased into his role with great confidence and authority, a sentiment expressed in public commentary following his speech.

There is little doubt that Egypt will – yet again – undergo major changes as Abdel Fattah el-Sisi prepares to establish a sense of law and order, fiscal stability and unity within a deeply fractured state—presently and also for the foreseeable future.

Since the election of the new president Egypt is experiencing a more stable political situation, and this is expected to be soon reflected in the economic revamp of Egypt. The good will of the people and the will of the government are supporting president el-Sisi for this economic revamp.

The government is currently looking at a number of strategic projects in Egypt: further developments of the Suez Canal, a nuclear energy station and the mining sector. Therefore, a number of strategic projects are going to be implemented soon and will affect the economy positively.

But is the country finally secured enough?

Mostafa Al Hassan, chairman of the Global Consolidated Contractors, the top contracting company in Egypt, commented: “Egypt has many challenges, it had two revolutions over three and half years and we had six governments. Now, this is a time to regain stability and to rebuild Egypt.”

“Unfortunately, the perception of the revolution and of Egypt in the west does not reflect what we see on the ground. It is very important that companies and international investors come to Egypt and investigate for themselves.”

As many others, Al Hassan also identified Egypt as a place of investment opportunities. “Egypt is a land of opportunities due to its location and its people. There is no way that Egypt will regress; there is only one way forward and it is going to succeed.”

It is expected that the new president and his government will be intensely focused on resolving internal security matters and domestic economic issues. It is therefore essential for foreign investors to follow these events very closely at this critical juncture in the country’s development.

In this regard Al Hassan said: “First of all, the security situation in Egypt is now changing dramatically after the presidential elections.”

“We have been through a long period of instability, which has been exacerbated by the fact that the Minister for the Interior has changed several times over the past three years.
All this instability has greatly stretched the capacity of the police force: over the last three years there have been great deals of operations on the ground, on an almost daily basis.”

Khaled Abd Elghany, Senior Security Consultant at Middle East Security, another private security firm specialized in security services for multinational companies in Egypt, is confident about the future: “I believe that now we have our new president after the elections, the situation will improve—and it is already improving – we still have some areas, such as the Sinai area, in which the military is operating, but I believe it is better than three or four months ago.”

He continued: “In Cairo and other cities we used to have protests every day and a lot of violence, but this has all subsided dramatically now. Of course we still have some security situations, like any other country in the world, but the overall situation is improving now.”

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