Van Eck added to its growing lineup of country-specific ETFs today with the launch of the first Egypt-focused fund for U.S. investors.

The Market Vectors Egypt Index ETF (NYSEArca: EGPT) invests in 28 companies that derive at least 50 percent of their revenues from Egyptian operations. The fund comes with a price tag of 0.94 percent.

Egypt is the 16^th-largest country in the world by population and has one of the fastest-growing economies and markets in the Middle East. According to Van Eck’s emerging markets analyst, Ed Kuczma, demographic and domestic growth, low production costs and infrastructure spending are some of the leading drivers of the economy.

The country is also benefiting from government efforts to privatize banks, which have put Egypt’s financial sector on “a lot more stable ground than other peers in emerging markets,” Kuczma said.

And while it’s not all smooth sailing in Egypt—the country struggles with inflationary pressures, rising unemployment rates and a heavy subsidy burden on its budget—it still saw GDP growth of nearly 5 percent in 2009 while many economies shrank last year.

Last year, the EGX 30—an Egyptian benchmark of the 30 largest companies located in that country, which is not the same as the benchmark for the ETF—rose 46 percent. That placed it well behind the broader MSCI Emerging Markets Index, but ahead of most energy-focused Middle Eastern peers.

EGPT carries a heavy load of financial names, telecom companies and construction firms.

By market capitalization, the portfolio is also diverse, though more than 50 percent of it is allocated to mid-caps with capitalization of anywhere from $1 billion to $5 billion.

EGPT is the latest off-the-beaten-path country ETF from the fast-growing Van Eck, which recently launched ETFs tied to Poland, Indonesia and Vietnam as well.