economic, social and cultural rights of the Egyptian citizen, including the right to housing, the
right to healthcare, and the right to education. The Constitution also protects the rest of these
rights under Articles 92 and 93 in line with Egypt's regional and international obligations.
2. In order to achieve comprehensive and sustainable development and raise the living
standards and conditions of citizens, the government has introduced a series of measures
aimed at achieving comprehensive development in all sectors. The decision to liberalize the
exchange rate was necessary to complete economic reforms. The continued existence of two
exchange rates negatively affects efforts to attract investment. Foreign exchange management
was needed to provide food and petroleum products. This resulted in a noticeable improvement
in the rate of economic growth. Investments increased to EGP 407.7 billion during the fiscal
year 2015/2016 and reached EGP 530 billion during the fiscal year 2016/2017. The fiscal and
monetary policy followed by the government led to a rise in net dollar reserves to US $ 36,147
billion for the first time since 2013. The balance of payments surplus exceeded $7 billion during
the first half of the fiscal year 2016/2017, marking the best performance in six years. The
unemployment rate fell to 12.4 percent during the first quarter of 2017, achieving the largest
decline in unemployment rates in a five-year period.
In this context, Investment Decree No. 72 of 2017 was issued to encourage attracting more
cash flow for the development process and to reduce unemployment rates. The law affirms
gender equality in investment opportunities, in addition to activating the social responsibility of
investors through allocating licenses to investors not exceeding 10% of their annual net profits
for use in establishing a system for community development outside the framework of their
investment project in the following areas:
a. Protection and improvement of the environment.
B. Provision of health, social, cultural or other development services or programs.
C. Support for technical education or funding of research, studies and awareness campaigns
aimed at developing and improving production.
D. Training and scientific research.
Another priority issue in ensuring economic growth is financial inclusion, especially with regard
to the transformation of the informal economy into a formal economy, in order to increase gross
national product and support growth rates, especially in light of the fact that around 80 percent
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