Britain supports modernizing Egyptian industry
Egypt-UK, Politics, 6/19/2001

At the beginning of the biggest international conference for discussing horizons of economic cooperation between Egypt and Britain, the government has pledged to support industrial modernization programme in Egypt through transferring technology to the sector of Egyptian industry and the establishment of strategic alliances between Egyptian and British companies.

Addressing the conference which is attended by representatives of 250 companies from both countries, Egypt said it has started to reap fruits of economic reform policy as testified by world companies adding this has created a proper climate for attracting foreign investment.

Egypt also restated its keenness to benefit from the British experiment in attracting direct foreign investment mainly in the fields of information and telecommunications technology.

The first day of the conference witnessed discussions by Egyptian officials including the Ministers of Transport and petroleum , the Chairman of Investment Authority and representatives of the British and Egyptian companies.

Discussions focused on projects related to the infrastructures, transport, the British university, natural gas, its derivatives, petroleum, chemicals, telecommunications, and sophisticated technology.

Participants will discuss today measures for encouraging joint investments, the role of investment authority in expanding horizons of economic cooperation besides financial and banking services, the stock exchange, insurance and privatization.

Inaugurating the conference, Ibrahim A1 Demairy, the Minister of Transport said political stability in Egypt under President Mubarak secures a better climate for foreign investments.

He said Egypt has many attractions such as skilled labour and legislations which allow investment in infrastructures mainly projects of communicational power, drinking water, sanitary drainage and exportation projects.

He called on British investors to take part in infrastructure projects such as the development of railways, airports and maritime transport in Egypt.

Egypt's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Adel Al Gazzar said the volume of British investments in Egypt has reached $ 2.5 billion during the last five years, adding that Britain is the biggest foreign investor in Egypt on British companies to expand their investments mainly in the projects of exportation.

On his part, Tony Ames, who is in charge of investment in Egypt told Al-Ahram that the British trade partners corporation is now preoccupied with mapping out a working strategy for British and Egyptian companies adding that the corporation pledged to do its best for submitting advice which sheds light on prospects for industrial investment in Egypt.

He said the final sources were now being made for establishing a steering body for determining prospects for bilateral cooperation in the sector of industry.

He said that the two-year programmes agreed on by the two sides for improving partnership between Egyptian and British companies will be supervised by a steering committee under his chairmanship and membership of a representative of the Egyptian British Chamber of Commerce and a number of competent experts.

Meantime, Minister of Petroleum Eng. Sameh Fahmy told the conference that the plan of the sector of petroleum aims at carrying out a number of projects through British corporation investments for transferring gas finds in the Mediterranean into productive fields and the establishment of a factory for liquefying it and exporting it to European states.

Taher Al Sherif, the Secretary of the Egyptian British Commerce said the two sides agreed to convene the conference every year apart from a qualitative conference every six months for discussing certain sectors of significance to the Egyptian economy such as information technology and engineering.

Right, the Chairman of the British Council for international Trade said prospects for trade and investment in Egypt are promising, adding that he discussed with Egyptian officials priorities of investment he said trade and investment are important part of the British investment.

Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Dr. Youssef Boutros Ghali said Monday that the government is seeking to attract more foreign investments to the tune of LE 25 billion into Egypt.

Ghali, in a report he laid out about his ministry's efforts on raising rates of savings in Egypt, added that the targeted investments are aimed at filling the gap between local savings and the needs to carry out investment projects, the tool to increase growth rates to about six percent.

He further noted that the ministry is seeking to enhance contacts with Egyptians working abroad with a view to increasing their remittances and investments in the homeland.

As many as three million Egyptians are working abroad and remit about $ 3.7 billion annually.

Mohamed Farid Khamiss, the Chairman of the Egyptian British businessmen association said Egypt would benefit from the agreement as competition would serve the interests of consumers.

Al Sayed Zaidan, the Egyptian commercial Minister Plenipotentiary said trade balance between Egypt and Britain has achieved a surplus of 14.6 million pound Sterling against a deficit of 40 million pound Sterling last years.

Previous Stories:
  Egypt, Britain share identical viewpoints regarding ME peace process   (6/9/2001)
  Egypt criticizes British stand   (10/25/2000)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search