Economic cooperation high on agenda of Egypt, USA talks
Egypt-USA, Economics, 3/3/2001

Egypt's Prime Minister Atef Ebeid said the economic file of the Egyptian-US talks during President Mubarak's upcoming visit to the United States on April 2 includes a number of fundamental issues such as reactivating economic cooperation, increasing Egyptian exports to the United States and attracting US investments and technology.

Ebeid told A1 Ahram that-economic talks will start with consultations with the US administration for endorsing the principle of preferential treatement for the Egyptian products on US markets on the sidelines of what was agreed upon with newighbouring countries.

He said Egypt would seek to establish relations which are based on partnership and development given the fact that there is an agreement on paring down aid to Egypt by 5% annually.

The Prime Minister said talks will include consultations with the US administration for the establishment of free trade zone between the two countries, indicating that Egypt aims at increasing the volume of Egyptian commodity exports to the US market in the upcoming stage to 3 billion dollar.

He said the file also includes many important issues such as attracting US investments to Egypt, transferring technology, training cadres and transferring know-how.

Meantime, the Prime Minister said the government programme would give priority to increasing the state resources and raising quality of services.

The Prime Minister said the government would firmly face any breach of law in the implementation of economic measures and tightening control over exports and imports.

He said any official who is proved to have tampered with rules organizing importation of commodities would be severely punished.

He said the market has started to enjoy some sort of stability and discipline, adding economic movement has witnessed remarkable activity and the number of bankruptcies has come down.

The prime minister said foreign investments in Egypt have been remarkably increased adding the number of companies including foreign inputs reached 2712 with an issued capital of LE 58.531 billion and investment costs of LE 116,743 billion.

He said the annual average of foreign investments in Egypt reached 2,626 billion dollar.

Ebeid said local investments are increasing, adding that President Mubarak asked that all citizens should enjoy development returns.

He said the government is giving wider attention to small size projects as they are the best method for expanding development.

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