they refused to hand over company shares to the government they were later released but the company is still in government hands egypts policy of mixing government and business dates to socialist leader gamal abdel nassers widereaching nationalization in the 1950s and 60s his successors presidents anwar sadat and hosni mubarak took steps toward freemarket policies but were often accused of giving contracts only to allies selling state companies and government transparency are key goals of a 3 billion bailout package that egypt secured from the imf in december to help it weather recent shocks to the global economy including the covid19 pandemic and russias war in ukraine that have pushed the country to the financial brink since the war in ukraine began in february 2022 sending up food and fuel prices the egyptian pound has lost over 50 of its value against the dollar and inflation has exceeded 30 pushing more people into poverty and leaving businesses struggling in seeking egypts fourth loan from the imf in the past six years prime minister moustafa madbouly says the hope is the reforms bring in strategic investors and widen the participation of egyptian citizenship in public ownership egypts ministry of finance did not respond to requests for comment about the push to privatize companies the imf says its preparing for an initial review to ensure egypt is meeting the goals of the bailout program including privatization dates for the first review mission will be announced when they have been agreed with the authorities communications director julie kozack said at a march 23 press briefing meanwhile the conditions are squeezing small businesses one owner of a manufacturing company said he is locked into state contracts while facing rising import costs and taxes he lamented that small firms cant even take advantage of the one benefit of the economic crisis egypts falling exchange rate is making our goods more competitive internationally but businesses are barely staying afloat and the government doesnt help private firms find markets abroad he said despite criticism leaders hope the energy sector in particular will be a magnet for private investment with its geography and large solar plants offering the potential to tap renewable financing rystad energy said egypt received over 100 billion in investment for planned green hydrogen projects last year the government also plans to turn the country into a hub for liquefying and exporting natural gas after recent offshore discoveries for egypt to attract funding the government needs a financial overhaul to make renewable investing less risky and reduce delays said jessica obeid a nonresident scholar at the middle east institute across the world everyone is kind of competing for a small pool of investors money and it will all go down to a countrys ability to implement required reforms and increase investors appetites in coming into the market she said plus its not easy to attract investment when you have military and government involvement across so many sectors of the economy obeid said it is