UK overseas development body urges Egypt to 'level playing field' for private sector

(Corrects currency in second paragraph to US dollars instead of British pounds)

CAIRO, June 23 (Reuters) - British International Investment, a UK government body for financing overseas development projects, plans to increase investments in Egypt but urges Cairo to do more to "level the playing field" between state and private entities, its chief executive told Reuters.

British International Investment, which only invests in the private sector, currently has $850 million invested in Egypt.

"Egypt is our largest exposure on the African continent. That is by design," BII Chief Executive Leslie Maasdorp said in an interview during a visit to Cairo last week.

"We will increase our investment activity in Egypt," he said. 

Previous BII commitments in Egypt have gone largely to climate finance, including more than $300 million for a 1.1-gigawatt wind farm in the Gulf of Suez and a solar and battery storage facility with Norway's Scatec.

BII has said it aims to invest £5 billion ($6.61 billion) in Africa over five years and mobilise an additional £4 billion from private investors.

Maasdorp did not give a specific target for Egypt but said investment would follow viable opportunities.

Egypt has taken steps to restore confidence under an $8 billion IMF programme, adopting a flexible exchange rate and pledging reduced state intervention.

Maasdorp praised Egypt's 2024 exchange rate liberalisation as a durable structural shift. Still, he stressed that clearer economic parity between state and private actors would boost investor trust.

Asked what single measure would most help Egypt attract investment, Maasdorp pointed to private sector reform.

"Levelling the playing field, if you ask me to identify one intervention, it could be that one," he said.

"The private sector is the engine of growth, development and prosperity," Maasdorp said.

($1 = 0.7566 pounds)

(Reporting by Mohamed Ezz; Editing by Alexander Dziadosz and Susan Fenton)