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The UK Trade Envoy to Egypt, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, arrived in Cairo on Saturday with a delegation of UK companies seeking to explore various business opportunities in Egypt, the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) announced yesterday.
The delegation consists of 14 multi-sector British companies, including infrastructure, defence, healthcare and agriculture.
The companies include London International Patient Services, Rolls Royce and Bombardier, with 70 per cent of those involved being new investors in Egypt.
The delegation is due to meet with a number of Egyptian officials, including the Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, the Chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), Admiral Mohab Mameesh, as well as the ministers of investment, housing, trade, transport and petroleum.
They are also expected to visit Egypt’s new administrative capital and meet with the project’s chairman Ayman Ismail to discuss investments opportunities there.
“The recent reforms that have been implemented have brought about stronger economic growth in Egypt and this has heightened the interest of British companies in doing business with Egypt,” Donaldson said.
On his part the British Ambassador to Egypt, John Casson, hailed the UK’s “continuous” investments in Egypt saying that he is excited “to be welcoming a new generation of British companies that are looking for business opportunities here”.
According to the FCO, the UK is the number one foreign investor in Egypt, with over $43 billion of investment inflows this decade and more than 1,450 active British businesses operating in the North African country.
It is also a major investor in Egypt’s oil and gas sector, the statement says. The investments of the giant oil and gas company British Petroleum (BP) in Egypt have exceeded its investments globally.
In recent months the British manufacturer SEWS opened a new factory in Egypt in August, while the world’s biggest British telecommunications company Vodafone has allocated EGP 2 billion to expansion in Egypt this year.
Egypt has been implementing an economic reform programme to close budget deficits and streamline investment laws, in an attempt to improve the investment environment. Last November the government floated the Egyptian pound to push its value closer to real market level.
