Greece and Egypt to boost bilateral economic relations

The Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade and the Greek Ambassador to Egypt, discussed the future of economic relations between Egypt and Greece and ways to increase trade and investment between the two countries.

Minister Hatem Saleh and Ambassador Chris Lazaris met on Dec. 4, and discussed increasing the role of the Egypt-Greek Business Council to better facilitate trade and investment between the two countries. The council was established in 2002.

“The government is about to implement a large program to support and attract investment from industrialized European economies to the Egyptian market. This would benefit the Egyptian economy and make use of its investment benefits, which include its network of trade agreements, huge market, competitive energy prices and cheap labor costs,” said Saleh.

He emphasized that Egypt welcomes high technology industries with large labor needs to the Egyptian market. He specifically noted that he discussed the problems facing Greek factories in Egypt.

He also said trade between the two countries amounted to $1.3 billion in 2011, but added this could increase as Greek investments in Egypt total $464 million. These investments were in services, consultancy projects, tourism, agriculture, financial and industrial sectors and other fields.