President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his French counterpart Francois Hollande inaugurated the Egyptian-French Economic Forum in Cairo on Monday, with the two leaders delivering speeches reaffirming the importance of bilateral co-operation and French investments in Egypt.
The represententives of 60 French companies are attending the forum at Al-Masah Hotel, along with the ministers of industry, investment, international cooperation, transport and electricity.
Twenty-one agreements are due to be signed between the French companies and Egyptian agencies in the fields of energy, transport, industry and services.
In his speech, Hollande said that France is fully committed to assisting Egypt in achieving economic development and making improvements in education and training.
"We aim to increase investments in Egypt. We have 150 branches of French companies operating in Egypt where thousands of Egyptians are employed," he added, noting that France is the sixth largest investor in Egypt.
"We seek to raise the level of our investments in Egypt, and we understand very well the challenges facing Egypt, especially terrorism, as well as the demographic challenge, with the size of Egypt's population increasing by 2 million each year… which is a burden on the state," Holland said.
"You need to work to ensure that the population is distributed over the land of Egypt to provide better opportunities for economic growth," he said.
He pointed out that France seeks to co-operate with Egypt to achieve stability in energy resources and to develop infrastructure.
Many French companies are ready to invest in the Suez Canal economic zone, which presents great investment opportunties, said the French president, citing France's experience in the development of sustainable cities.
Hollande called on French companies to provide vocational training for the Egyptian workforce and encourage the exchange of expertise between universities and engineers, adding that 800,000 young people join the job market yearly in Egypt.
Sis's opening speech focused on the value of French-Egyptian co-operation and its durability in the midst of various challenges.
France is Egypt's ninth largest commercial partner, with trade between the two countries totaling US$2.58 billion in 2015, Sisi said.
Despite the challenges faced by French companies in Cairo since 2015, they have continued doing business in Egypt, especially in the service sector, Sisi added.
He pointed to the many factors that contribute to ongoing economic and trade co-operation between the two countries, including the implementation of joint ventures between the public and private sectors and the expertise of the French in boosting the small-business sector.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
