By Rana Yehia
Over 1,500 delegates from 52 countries, including 755 international companies, attended the first day of Egypt’s Economic Development Conference (EEDC) in Sharm El-Sheikh.
(Photo by Ahmed Al-Malky)
The majority of delegates come from within the region; with 414 delegates attending, Egypt has the largest participation reaching 41% of the total share. The UAE comes next with 141 delegates, or 14% of the total.
Saudi Arabia has the third largest participation with 57 delegates attending reaching 6%, followed by Kuwait with 42 delegates attending attaining 4% of the total share.
China had the largest participation of countries from outside the Middle East with 45 attendees, representing 4% of the total share. With the same percentage of China comes the US with 44 delegates.
From Italy, 33 delegates attended, reaching 3% of the total share, followed by the UK with a delegation of 20, reaching 2%.
In pursuance of Egypt’s economic recovery, 17 Sectors of Investment were represented at the EEDC including, aerospace, agriculture, construction, education, energy, finance and private equity, food and beverage, government, healthcare (pharmaceutical), hospitality, insurance, IT, manufacturing, mass media, mining, NGOs, water, utilities, transportation, tourism, telecommunications, retail, sports, real estate.
The majority of the attendance is involved in the finance, equity, energy and construction sectors. The largest number of delegates, 159 attendees, is interested in finance and private equity attaining 14.6% of the total share, followed by 141 delegates in the construction sector with 12.9%.
With 127 delegates, the energy sector comes third representing 11.6%, and then comes 119 delegates from “other” or unknown industries reaching 10.9% of the total share. The manufacturing sector had 71 delegated with a percentage of 6.6%.
