(AFP Photo)
By Muhammad Ayad
Osama Salih, Egypt’s Investment minister, is set to arrive on Wednesday in the Turkish city of Istanbul as head of an Egyptian delegation representing the country in the eighth annual Turkish-Arab Economic Forum, with a predicted audience of nearly 600 businessmen and economists from Turkey, Europe and the Arab world. He will be accompanied by a number of the country’s ministers, high-ranking members of Egypt’s Central Bank, and executives of companies working in Egypt’s investment, industry, tourism, real estate and commercial sectors.
During the forum, Salih stated that he planned to discuss Egypt’s current investment climate and recent government efforts to offer incentives to Egyptian and foreign businessmen. He added that the ultimate goal would be to increase the role of the private sector in Egypt’s economy.
In particular, he planned to discuss and advertise the potential for joint public and private sector partnerships in a number of the country’s most promising sectors, such as real estate, commercial, logistics, tourism, industry and infrastructure.
He added that the Ministry of Investment, in cooperation with the country’s General Authority for Investment, hoped to attract investment and inject joint Turkish-Arab capital into a number of Egypt’s most promising sectors. This would be done by raising awareness of the various systems to facilitate investment in Egypt, in addition to encouraging the creation of economic blocs and investment zones within the country in the hope of creating more job opportunities for Egyptian workers.
Salih is expected to meet with a number of high-ranking Turkish businessmen and dignitaries to discuss these issues, in addition to reviewing the activities of foreign companies operating in Egypt. He also plans to meet a number of Egyptian investors already doing business in Turkey and members of the Turkish-Egyptian Business Council in order to answer their questions about the future of investment in Egypt and the measures being taken to revive the economy.
