Egypt moving forward with reforms, trade minister

Egypt is moving forward with reforms since its top priority is still that of attracting ever more foreign investment and getting the country back on the right track, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour told Italian businessmen on Thursday.

The minister was speaking at a meeting organized in Rome by the Italian Trade Commission (ICE). ''We are revising all the regulations to facilitate capital flows,'' Abdel Nour said. It's true, he admitted, that ''our bureaucracy is still very heavy and there are too many laws. The problems are still mainly the budget deficit and the enormous public debt, as well as the emergency situation as concerns unemployment.'' Egypt ''still moves slowly'', he noted. Slow to come also seem the tangible effects of the Sharm El-Sheikh economic conference on March 13-15, which many local media considered more of a showcase than anything else. ''On that occasion,'' Abdel Nour said, ''many countries supported us at the political and economic level.'' The Egyptian authorities brought home from the international conference on the Red Sea some 60 billion dollars in direct investment and facilitated loans. Many agreements were signed, but few binding ones. ''The time has come for these investments to materialize,'' the minister replied. ''By two years from now the results should be visible, especially in the electrical energy, oil and gas sectors as well as manufacturing.'' To the enterprises present - including Fincantieri, Edison and Enel Green Power, he said that ''we need your support and to exchange ideas and experiences with you''. The post-conference perception is still positive among Italians as well.