Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi provided the opening remarks for Africa 2016: Business for Africa, Egypt and the World conference, a two-day forum on business investment in Africa that is being held in Sharm El-Sheikh.
In the course of his speech, President Al-Sisi noted that more than 10 African countries posted the highest growth rates in the world despite the ongoing severe economic slowdown. Additionally, Al-Sisi drew attention to the rate of direct foreign investment in Africa, which he claimed had increased more than fivefold over the last 10 years.
Al-Sisi claimed that Africa has the requisite human resources and economic elements needed for growth and development, indicating that Egypt aims to double its current trade volume of $5bn with its neighbouring countries in the coming five years.
“We hope these efforts to efficiently serve the goal of doubling the intra-African trade, which stands at only 12% of the continent’s total trade volume. This rate is not commensurate with the elements and capabilities that economic integration between our African countries would bring,” Al-Sisi said.
“We are proud of what we achieved in Egypt in regard to activating African cooperation and integration. Egyptian companies investments in African markets increased our investments’ volume in the continent’s countries to over $8bn and contributed to creating thousands of job opportunities”, Al-Sisi said.
Egyptian investments in other African markets are distributed between sectors of construction, infrastructure, energy, mining, agriculture, communications, and information technology.
Al-Sisi also addressed a number of projects that aim to develop the transport network infrastructure to serve the goals of economic integration and development in Africa.
He called the New Suez Canal an ambitious project that will contribute to increasing Africa’s trade with world markets. Egypt will also strengthen elements of manufacturing and export with its creation of industrial and logistical established in proximity to the Suez Canal.
“We look forward to establishing the overland route that links Cairo to Cape Town, passing through a number of African capitals,” Al-Sisi said.
He also stated that the project of the shipping line between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean is ongoing.
Al-Sisi called on African business leaders, financiers, and senior politicians to come to a consensus on many development projects and initiatives for a better future for the people of the continent.
Africa countries have become a point of focus for world financial markets, having restructured its economic and legislative framework to better keep pace with changes in the international requirements of development and investment.
“The deepened support in economic cooperation between African countries and our partners in development has coincided with the achievements many of our countries have made in posting growth rates that exceed the global average in recent years,” Al-Sisi said. “I want to stress the importance of improving human capacity and paying adequate attention to African youth that will form its [the continent’s] future, through investing in education to provide them with the necessary skills.”
“We should enhance the competitiveness of our national markets to attract more investments and penetrate international markets, taking into account the increasing challenges facing the global economy,” Al-Sisi said.
