Ahmed Al Wakil, Chairman of the Federation of the Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, said that Egyptian investments have grown in the UAE to reach more than US$826 million, excluding real estate investments there.
The remarks were made during a speech on Saturday at a meeting between the executive heads of Egyptian and Emirati investors headed by Egyptian Minister of Trade Tarek Qabeel and Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Emirati Minister of Economy.
Al-Wakil added that the value of the goods traded between Egypt and UAE exceeded US$3.2 billion, while the service trading is much larger as there are five UAE banks in Egypt and three Egyptian banks in the UAE, as well as major contracting companies along with retail trade and franchises.
Al-Wakil pointed out that the UAE is the pioneer of Arab integration at the bilateral level. It is ranked first in the list of top investors in Egypt at a total value of US$6.2 billion in 868 companies. “UAE investments are increasing with new companies investing along with Emirati properties of real estate assets in Egypt worth multi-billion dollars,” Al-Wakil said.
He stressed that an integration between UAE and Egypt have to take place to enter the markets of third countries, pointing out that the first goals of this cooperation is to start reconstruction projects in Iraq, where UAE companies along with Egyptian ones work together.
“There are several Egyptian companies that have been In Iraq since a while and they have a good experience in similar projects implemented in Egypt during the last two years of roads, electricity stations, water, drainage, housing, hospitals, agriculture and building entire cities,” he said.
Egypt and the UAE have a concrete economic and political relationship which have developed after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gained power in 2013, as the UAE offered substantial financial support to Egypt.
According to latest indices, Egypt’s exports to UAE jumped during the first half of 2017-2018 FY reaching US$1.204 billion compared to US$1.126 billion during the same period of 2016, marking a seven percent increase.
Moreover, according to official data the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and the UAE reached about US$3.456 billion in 2016, against US$2.597 billion in 2015.
