ANALYTICAL STUDY FOR THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC REFORM ON ATTRACTING FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT TO EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE SECTOR

Egypt has natural resource base and large market size, qualifies to be a major recipient of FDI in Africa and indeed, it is one of the top three leading African countries that consistently received FDI in the past decade. However, the level of FDI attracted especially to agriculture is small compared to the resource base and potential need , the percentage of FDI inflow to the agricultural sector in Egypt decreased from4.68 % during 1982 to 3.37% during  2017/2016  which reflected  negatively on agricultural sector contribution on gross national product from 19.9%during 1982 to 11.6% during 2016/2017. This research aims at highlightingthe impact of economic reform on Attracting Foreign Direct Investment to Egyptian Agriculture Sector, and examined the impact of FDI on the agricultural sector growth in Egypt during the period (1990-2016), known as the economic reforms. The research is based on the descriptive and analytical methodology and the econometric methodology in determining the relationship, the research employs secondary time series data which spanned (1990 – 2016). The result obtained in the analysis; there exist a positive relationship between foreign direct investment and agricultural sector of Egypt foreign direct investment, it hasn't significant impact on agriculture in Egypt due to the nature, risk and uncertainty of agriculture activity, The R2 is 0.93 showing that the explanatory variable explains 93% of changes in the dependent variable. Other factors that contribute to agriculture apart from foreign direct investment are captured by the remaining 7% which are not included in the model, from the regression analysis carried out; The questionnaire cleared that, There are many obstacles facing the investor when investing, which limits the attractiveness of investment, such as, unstable political and economic policies, weak infrastructure, global competition for FDI flows as impediments standing in the way of attracting significant FDI flows, political regime, , rate of inflation, interest rate, credit rating and debt service,.. In the light of the above findings, the followings recommendations are proposed to encourage and improve the inflow of foreign direct investment in Egypt: -   Economic reform policies encouraged and attract more FDI into Egypt; also Egypt needs to juxtapose foreign investment with domestic investment in order to maintain high levels of income and employment. -   Foreign investment can be effective if it is directed at improving labor skills. Foreign direct investments into Egypt will not on its own lead to sustainable economic growth. -   focus on the Policies' stability of the economy' which enhancement of the internal economy, -   monitoring of benchmarks and business practice, voluntary guidelines, and transfer of Environmentally sound technology -   Government should provide adequate infrastructure and policy framework that will be conducive for doing business in Egypt, so as to attract the inflow of FDI. -   The necessity of activating inter-Arab investments. -   Promoting Agriculture should be the top-most priority of administration in Egypt.