Fresh impetus to Egyptian-British economic cooperation
Egypt-UK, Economics, 5/21/2002

A British delegation led by Chairman of the Egyptian British Chamber of Commerce David Blatherwick visited Egypt last week to probe with the Egyptian officials means of increasing joint investments, especially in the domains of oil and natural gas.

Blatherwick said that the British gas companies will pump new investments worth $ one billion in Egypt's natural gas sector, up till the year 2004.

'There are big opportunities to boost joint cooperation in the spheres of trade and investment,' Blatherwick added.

The British guest pointed out that the Chamber is executing a host of programmes to encourage the giant British companies to launch joint inland investment projects and a number of free zone implement ventures.

'This, besides organizing visits for British businessmen to get acquainted with the available opportunities for cooperation with their Egyptian counterparts,' he added.

The British delegation comprised representatives of 16 major companies operating in the fields of electronics, financial consultancy, insurance, marketing, navigational equipment, petrochemicals and other economic and industrial activities.

Furthermore, Secretary General of the Chamber, Taher El- Sherif, said that the value of British investments in Egypt surged up to $ 5 billion, ranking second after the Arab investments in Egypt.

El-Sherif said Egyptian-British trade exchange went down to 875 million pound sterling in the year 2001, compared to 974 million pound sterling in the year 2000. 'Egypt's exports to the British market soared by 45 per cent in the last four years, whereas Egypt's imports increased by 15 per cent,' he added.

On another plane, Executive Manager of the British Petroleum Group (BP) John Brown held talks recently with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmy on the Company's activities in Egypt in the coming period.

Brown said that the BP Group decided to inject $ one billion in investments over a-three-year period for oil and natural gas exploration, besides developing the discovered fields in the Mediterranean Sea deep waters.

"BP Group will also contribute in liquefying and exporting natural gas to the European markets," he added.

Previous Stories:
  Egypt, Ukraine to build a joint satellite   (5/18/2002)
  Egyptian-British talks to boost economic and banking cooperation   (5/17/2002)
  Egypt, Britain discuss ways of boosting oil, gas cooperation   (4/12/2002)

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