Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) tops the list of largest importers from Egypt in 2017, explaining that Egyptian exports to the UAE market reached $2.5bn last year.
He pointed out that the volume of the trade exchange between the two countries increased during the last three years by 20%.
In terms of investments, Kabil said that the UAE is ranked the largest investor in Egypt, with total investments at $6.2bn.
This came during the inauguration of the Egyptian-UAE Business Forum on Saturday, which is chaired by Kabil and UAE Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori.
It’s worth mentioning that the forum is organised by the General Federation of Chambers of Commerce under the title “Egypt…UAE, from bilateral cooperation to regional cooperation” and was attended by a large number of heads of major Egyptian and UAE companies.
Days ago, Kabil said that this forum aims at enhancing the partnership between the private sectors in both countries to contribute to the establishment of joint projects.
During his speech at the forum’s inauguration, Kabil pointed out the measures taken by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the framework of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Strategy: Egypt Vision 2030, including the launch of the industrial investment map.
Moreover, the minister stressed on the importance of the prominent role of the private sector and the business communities of the two countries to contribute to achieving an unprecedented boom in the level of joint trade and investment cooperation under the support of the Egyptian and UAE governments.
For his part, Al Mansoori stressed on the importance of achieving economic integration between the two countries through finding a real partnership based on identifying the available manufacturing capabilities to meet the needs of consumers in both countries.
In this context, he pointed out the possibility of achieving such integration at the level of a number of Arab countries.
Al Mansoori assured that Egypt, with its potential and pioneering role in the Arab region, is capable of playing a pivotal role in developing an integrated strategy in cooperation with the Arab countries to deal with issues such as Arab food security and the development of the small and medium enterprises sector.