CAIRO - Egypt's cabinet on Thursday approved a major investment project with foreign participation that will increase foreign currency inflows, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said without specifying what the project was, how much it was worth or who it was with.

It is one of several projects the government is working on and meant to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and help stabilise the foreign exchange market at a time when Egypt is working to finalise a new accord with the International Monetary Fund, Madbouly said.

Details will be announced once the agreements are actually signed, he added.

Share prices on the Egyptian exchange jumped over the last few weeks on media reports that Emirati businessmen were involved in a $22 billion project to develop largely virgin land on the Ras El Hikma peninsula 200 kms (124 miles) west of Alexandria.

Egypt has been suffering from a severe shortage of foreign currency over the last two years. A $3 billion agreement signed with the IMF in December 2022 soon faltered after Egypt failed to follow through on a pledge to allow its currency to move in accordance with market forces.

(Reporting by Momen Saeed Atallah; Writing by Patrick Werr; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)