CAIRO - 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 pounds ($1.1 ​billion) 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)