Business & Money | Friday 13 March, 2015 3:38 am |

World leaders have started arriving in Sharm El-Sheikh to attend a major economic conference that opens on Friday to mobilize $12 billion in foreign investment to jump-start Egypt’s battered economy.
Crown Prince Muqrin, deputy premier, will lead the Kingdom’s delegation to the conference, said Saudi Ambassador to Cairo Ahmed Qattan, adding that the delegation would include business leaders and investors.

He said Saudi Arabia was the first country to call for the conference. “Saudi businessmen intend to invest more money in Egypt,” he added.
The three-day conference will draw more than 2,000 government and business leaders from across the world, including the International Monetary Fund’s Christine Lagarde and US Secretary of State John Kerry.

Egypt hopes the event will put it back on investor radar by projecting an image of stability, despite the insurgency in northern Sinai and militant attacks across the country.
The country’s economic reforms, including cuts in energy subsidies, a long-awaited law cutting red tape, and efforts to eliminate the currency black market, have won praise.
Kerry will meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sissi as well as other Arab and European leaders.

He will leave for Lausanne in Switzerland on Sunday for fresh negotiations with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.
El-Sissi hopes that the conference would help his country rebound after years of economic woes. Under the planned tax reform, the ceiling on companies and individuals earning more than one million Egyptian pounds ($131,148) a year will be reduced from 25 percent to 22.5 percent for a period of ten years.