Egypt attracts investments worth $3.9bn from the UAE

By Abdel Hai Mohamad on Wednesday, July 22, 2009

UAE investments in Egypt have risen to $3.9 billion (Dh14.3bn) at the end of April and they cover many sectors such as oil and gas, Abdel Rahman A Raouf, Minister Plenipotentiary for Economics and Commercial Affairs, has said.

"The number of UAE companies in Egypt went up to 440 and the UAE direct investments in the telecommunication sector account for 50 per cent of the total investments, while the investments in the finance sector form 20 per cent and the investments in transformational industries, tourism, real estate and construction sectors form the remaining 30 per cent," he said.

"Trade exchange between Egypt and the UAE increased threefold in 2007 and 2008, as it rose from $390 million in 2007 to $1.4bn in 2008. We noticed in 2008 and the beginning of 2009 there is a big increase in exports and imports between the two countries and this is a result of the development of political relations.

"Though the trade exchange between the two countries increased last year, this does not reflect the real potentials of the two countries in various economic fields. There are big opportunities to increase the volume of trade exchange."

On whether the UAE investments to Egypt will continue after international financial crisis, he said: "The UAE and Arab investments overseas were impacted due to the crisis. But this crisis proved that the investment in Arab countries, especially Egypt, is guaranteed and generates good profits.

"Egypt has drawn up a modern investment map according to geographical distribution and structure of projects. The map includes giant projects in industrial and agricultural fields.

"The Egyptian Government invited many UAE national investors to participate in the projects. We received a positive response and I expect the UAE Government and private investments in Egypt will rise over next few years.

"The Egyptian Government issued many legislations that encourage UAE investments, in particular, and foreign investments, in general. The past period witnessed the facilitation of procedures and quick completion of projects.

"Egypt is an attractive environment for the UAE and foreign investment and has huge consumer market, as its population tops 80 million people. There are other characteristics like low wages of labourers, availability of the majority of raw materials with low prices, presence of many ports on the Mediterranean and Red Sea and a rail network which is considered the world's second oldest rail network after Britain.

"Official statistics show foreign direct investments in Egypt rose from $354.6m in 2000 to $13.2bn in 2008. The FDI in oil sector totalled $4.1bn, while they arrived at $9.1bn in non-oil sectors."