The volume of agreements and investments from the Italian delegation are expected to be around €7bn-€8bn, Chairman of the Italian-Egyptian Business Council Marcello Sala told Daily News Egypt on the sidelines of the Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC).
The average period for such investments and agreements will be three years, Sala added.
Aside from the expected major agreements, Sala stated that smaller projects are expected to take place, which will make the investment figures larger than the previously mentioned ones.
“We are here with almost all of our members from the Italian side,” Sala said. “I had a chance to talk with my colleagues and they are satisfied.”
“There are concrete projects to talk about and not just ideas anymore,” Sala added.
Italian petroleum company Eni announced its plans to invest $5bn in Egypt over the next three years.
The amounts are important but the qualified skills that are needed to implement every project is the crucial point, Sala noted.
Sala, who is also the Executive Vice Chairman of Intesa Sanpaolo bank, which is the owner of Alex Bank, highlighted that the Intesa Sanpaolo bank invested a lot of money in the past eight years in Alex Bank.
“We invested some €1.2bn to buy the bank in 2006 then we reinvested every year all of the profit,” Sala said. “At the end, our total investment in Egypt could be quantified as €3bn.”
Discussing future investments, Sala said that reinvesting profits into the system is the plan.
