Last weekend’s high-profile investment conference declared Egypt ‘open for business.’ Firms and governments responded with a host of deals and pledges.

Inaugurating the conference, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi reiterated his commitment to a market economy led by the private sector, and pledged to make Egypt more business friendly. He said that his government’s key economic aims are to restore macro-economic stability, reduce the budget deficit, cut inflation and put in place a fair taxation system. Cairo has already reduced costly energy subsidies: their share of spending is set to fall to around $14bn for the current financial year to June 2015 from $18bn the previous year. (CONTINUED - 863 WORDS)