1st panel of Egypt-EU Investment Conf. kicks off

The first panel discussion of the Egypt-EU Investment Conference kicked off under the theme “Showcasing Egypt’s reform agenda and investment climate” Saturday.

The panel is discussing the most important reforms supporting the Egyptian economy and ways of boosting Egyptian-European cooperation to scale up investments.

Discussions also provide a significant opportunity for probing the promotion of the role of the private sector and development partners.

The session is attended by Karim Awad, Group CEO of EFG Holding, Anna Bjerde, Managing Director for Operations at the World Bank, International Cooperation Minister Rania el Mashat, EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Oliver Varhelyi, Planning and Economic Development Minister Hala el Saeed and Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis.

During the first panel of the Egypt-EU Investment Conference, Planning and Economic Development Minister Hala el Saeed said Egypt outlined an integrated structural reform program through an action plan devised by the government with the participation of the private sector and civil society.

Egypt has been carrying out different reform programs and its reform efforts are still continuing nationwide, the minister went on to say.

For his part, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said we are acting to achieve goals of the Egypt-EU Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership agreed upon by both sides during the Egypt-European summit in Cairo, including an investment support package worth € 5 billion, allocated to the macroeconomy.

According to the strategic and comprehensive agreement, we began with a memorandum of understanding at a value of € 1 billion, he said.

Dombrovskis further said “we see there is a possibility to scale up our investment and economic cooperation with Egypt”. The EU is already considered the largest trade partner with Egypt, he added, highlighting that the EU is responsible for 27% of net investments in the country.

He said Egypt has an ambitious agenda for reforms along with boosting digital transition in a way to attain development on all fronts.