The US commits USD 125 mn to Egypt under a new aid template that ties development money to market access for American companies

The Foreign Ministry and the US Embassy in Cairo have inked the first-ever bilateral Strategic Objective Agreement for Advancing Mutual Prosperity, with the US committing USD 125 mn in funding to expand private-sector growth and market access for American companies, according to a US Embassy statement last Wednesday. The funding will target joint projects across food security, agriculture, education, health, water security, innovation, and workforce development.

SOUND SMART- A strategic objective agreement is the paper the US government uses to program civilian aid to another country: one bilateral grant that fixes a single shared objective, a results framework, and a spending ceiling, with the money released in increments tied to milestones and to Congress keeping it available. Egypt has taken US aid for decades, but through agency programs. That matters less for the USD 125 mn than for the template it sets: development money tied to private-sector growth and market access for American companies, not to the broad programs Washington used to fund.

REMEMBER- US President Donald Trump put all US foreign development assistance under a 90-day review on 20 January, leaving Egypt’s roughly USD 1.3 bn in annual military aid untouched. By mid-March, USAID had terminated 44 awards in Egypt worth about USD 950 mn; the agency ran nine main programs here, covering macroeconomics, health, education, environment, agriculture, food, social protection, and female empowerment. USAID stopped operating independently on 1 July 2025, with the State Department absorbing its remaining work.

Back on the line

The Distressed Factories Restructuring Fund expects to close its first acquisitions before the end of the year, taking over several plants as it shifts from launch into deployment, a senior government official tells us. The fund is studying 12 investment opportunities, offering financing to restart stalled factories in return for equity stakes, the official says.

Priority goes to the plants closest to restart: factories that have fallen behind on loan repayments top the list of cases the fund is examining, while the ones it backs first will be those it can bring back to operation soonest, the official says. Plants that are less ready operationally and financially (including textile and chemical factories) come after them. Around 100 factories have registered on the Industry Ministry’s electronic platform for stalled factories since it launched last month.

A second track is running in parallel, with the government in talks with investors to take over 30 of the 51 stalled factories it is vetting for fresh investment, Industry Minister Khaled Hashem told parliament’s Industry Committee last week, part of an effort to bring in new partners and restart the plants. It comes inside a wider plan to resolve the problem that about 6k factories have stalled over two years.

IN CONTEXT- The Industry Ministry and the Central Bank of Egypt launched the Distressed Factories Restructuring Fund in early October with EGP 1 bn in capital. It takes equity stakes in stalled plants with workable operations and restructures them. CI Capital manages it, with several banks and the Industrial Development Authority as partners.

Beyond call centers

US-based cybersecurity and digital identity firm RSA opened a new USD 5 mn Center of Excellence in New Cairo, raising its total investments in Egypt to USD 65 mn since 2020, according to a statement. The facility currently houses 300 engineers and specialists delivering high-value tech services, spanning AI, cloud computing, UX design, and data science, in six languages to serve RSA’s global clientele. The firm plans to expand its local headcount to 400 by 2029, building on an MoU inked with ITIDA during the Global Offshoring Summit in November 2025.

REMEMBER- The expansion fits the ICT Ministry’s push to move outsourcing toward higher-value work, building on the sector’s USD 5.2 bn of revenues generated in FY2025/26. ITIDA’s 2030 strategy, which is still being drawn up, aims to shift Egypt from call centers toward AI, data analytics, engineering R&D, and chip design. Alongside India, the New Cairo hub now serves as one of RSA’s centers of excellence, with local teams contributing to RSA’s global identity security portfolio.

Mapping the sands

Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) inked an agreement with Saudi seismic firm Ardiseis for a 2D seismic survey covering up to 110k sq km of the Western Desert, according to a statement. The project spans roughly 11% of the country’s total land area across Matrouh and New Valley governorates, in frontier tracts near the Libyan border that have seen no petroleum activity, aiming to de-risk future upstream bidding rounds and draw international exploration capital.

IN CONTEXT- The ministry named Ardiseis the winner after a global tender, announcing the award on 12 August. The work runs alongside a 100k sq km survey that state holding company Ganope is running south of the Western Desert, and a separate offshore program whose first phase covers 18k sq km in the eastern Mediterranean.

Waves of recovery

Suez Canal monthly revenues recorded USD 724 mn in October, jumping 94% y-o-y, the highest monthly revenue since the Red Sea crisis began, according to a statement from the Suez Canal Authority (SCA). Vessel transits climbed 32% y-o-y to 1.5k, up from 1.1k the previous year, with a total net tonnage of 88 mn tons.

Major carriers return to the canal: SCA Chairman Osama Rabie said momentum is set to hold as global container and bulk liners gradually resume transit routes through the waterway, winding down the detour around the Cape of Good Hope. The canal’s revenue stood at USD 4.8 bn in FY 2025/26, up 23% y-o-y but still well below the USD 10.2 bn in 2023. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd moved a joint Asia-Europe service back to the canal in July, with the SCA targeting about USD 8 bn in revenue by 2H 2027.