Egypt’s parliament approved on Monday the establishment of a sovereign wealth fund with a capital of 200 billion Egyptian pounds ($11 billion), the MENA state news agency said on Tuesday. "The fund aims to contribute to sustainable economic development through management of its funds and assets,” it reported. The fund will be eligible to participate in all economic and investment activities, including setting up companies, investing in financial instruments, and other debt instruments in Egypt and abroad, it added. The law approved a 5 billion Egyptian pound start-up capital for the fund called "Egypt Fund", with 1 billion pounds to be transferred immediately from the treasury, MENA said. Al-Borsa, a local financial newspaper, quoted Amr el-Gohary, a member of the parliaments economic committee, as saying that the balance from the start-up capital will be paid over three years as part of the government investment plans. MENA said the law allowed the president to transfer ownership of any unutilized state assets to the fund or any of its subsidiaries. It gave no details of when it the fund was envisaged to reach 200 billion Egyptian pounds. Former Public Enterprise Minister Khaled Badawi said in March that Egypt was discussing setting up a sovereign wealth fund to manage state companies it plans to list on the stock exchange. Parliament last year passed an investment law to streamline doing business in Egypt and to create incentives it hopes will bring back investors dollars. Egypt floated its pound currency in November 2016 under a three-year $12 billion IMF program tied to ambitious economic reforms, part of a bid to restore capital flows that dried up after its 2011 uprising drove away investors and tourists. ($1 = 17.8800 Egyptian pounds)