By Menna Zaki
Minister of Foreign trade, Industry and Investment Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour paid a visit to London Sunday to promote a number of projects the ministry is planning to implement in Egypt.
During meetings with senior government officials, including Michael Fallon, the UK’s minister of state for business and energy, and Alan Duncan, minister of state for international development, Abdel Nour discussed the development of the Suez Canal project, and the “golden triangle” project, a development project in Upper Egypt that will connect the industrial centres of Qena, Safaga and Al-Qaseer.
The Egyptian government has selected four British joint venture companies to work on the Suez Canal Development Project, which aims to develop the seaports bordering the canal. In January, a British delegation visited Egypt to study opportunities for cooperation on the project. The delegation, was comprised of Tim Flair, the director of the trade office in London; Rod Griffin, expert in project management of Britain’s giant projects and representatives from the United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI) department at the British embassy.
The development projects will help create thousands job opportunities and improve the standard of living, the minister said in a statement.
While the main focus of the visit was to boost economic and commercial relations between Egypt and the United Kingdom, Abdel Nour said the visit also had a political dimension: to clarify to prospect investors the current economic and political situation in Egypt.
Abdel Nour said the message is not only for the UK’s government; it is also directed to the business community.
The volume of trade between Egypt and the United Kingdom reached $1.55bn between January and November of 2013, he said.
