The total investments of Egyptian companies in countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) hit about 4.4 billion U.S. dollars from 2003 to 2018, according to a report issued by the COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA) on Thursday.

"The investments concentrated on eight countries out of the organization's 21 members," the report said.

The investments in the period from 2003 to 2018 have covered 38 projects and have created 11,750 job opportunities, the report added.

It pointed out that the investments have focused on the fields of construction, pharmaceuticals, minerals, communications and IT and financial services.

COMESA countries include Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh will host on Dec. 8-9 the COMESA "Africa 2018 Forum" with the participation of 3,000 African and international figures.