The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (CanCham) is negotaiting with several official gold refining organisations to operate in Egypt, Fayez Ezeldin, CanCham’s chairperson told Daily News Egypt.
“Hopefully, we will be able to attract one of the official gold refining organisations, following the country’s deals for gold excavation in 2018,“ he mentioned.
While Canada captures the world leadership in the technologies of gold industries, Africa enjoys enormous natural resources, like gold, which supports Egypt’s opportunities to be a regional gold refining hub, Ezeldin added.
CanCham’s activities in 2019 will be implemented under the slogan “Egypt is your gate for Africa” in line with Egypt’s presidency of the African Union (AU), he said.
CanCham will organise several meetings in Canada for boosting Canadian investments in Egypt benifiting from the country’s taxation advantages when trading with other African countries, he added, noting that the existing Canadian investments in Egypt stood at $10bn.
“Egypt will announce the winner of a tender for choosing a company that will implement Egypt’s electric train. There are three competitors from Canada and China,” Ezeldin said, adding that if the Canadian company wins, it will inject investments of about $4bn in Egypt.
A Canadian-Egyptian consortium of Bombardier and Orascom applied for the electric train project besides Egyptian-Spanish and Chinese-Egyptian consortiums, according to past media reports.
Moreover, trade exchane between Canada and Egypt reached $1.2bn in 2018 while it is expected to hike to $1.5bn by the end of 2019, Ezeldin said.
CanCham is the only Canadian Chamber of Commerce in the Middle East region. It acts as the voice of the Canadian business community in Egypt and the surrounding region. Its ultimate goal is to maintain constructive and long-term relationships between both countries, and presents valuable and efficient services that benefit the business community on a wide scale of fields and activities.
CanCham is a non-profit organisation, aiming to enhance different aspects of cooperation in various fields, between the two countries, according to its website, adding that CanCham membership includes many of the world’s largest companies, SMEs, and business associations in more than 130 countries.
