UK willing to tap investment, business opportunities in Egypt: Ambassador

Newspaper Title: https://english.ahram.org.eg/

Newspaper Number:

Thursday - 30 September 2021

Bayley made his comments during a meeting held on Thursday with Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, to discuss new developments in the business and investment atmosphere in Egypt as well as the opportunities for British businesspersons.

Bayley took up his position as the UK Ambassador to Egypt in September in succession to Sir Geoffrey Adams.

During the meeting, Bayley lauded Egyptian achievements including mega projects underway in transportation, road construction and water desalination, stressing that there are lots of lessons that can be learned from the Egyptian experience with economic reforms.

On his side, Maait asserted that Egypt’s keenness to foster the domestic and foreign private sector in support of the state’s development plans is a key engine of the country’s economic growth.

He also reviewed the efforts the government has been taking to ease the work of the private sector in Egypt and to partner with it for recovery and development.

On Egypt’s macroeconomic performance, Maait noted that debt to GDP ratio is expected to decrease as of the upcoming FY2022/2023.

In this regard, the minister said that Egypt’s debt to GDP ratio was 91 percent in FY2020/2021, which witnessed the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, adding that this ratio was smaller than a number of European countries'.

Maait also stated that Egypt has managed to improve the debt maturity to 3.4 years in June 2021 with the objective of reaching 3.8 years in the current FY2021/22.

In September, the UK removed Egypt from its "red list" for travellers to the Kingdom from countries deemed a coronavirus risk starting 22 September.

Following the Brexit deal, the UK set an agenda to open up to other markets outside the European Union (EU) to establish robust economic and trade deals worldwide, with a special focus on the African market.

In this respect, The UK-Egypt Association Agreement, which governs trade exchange between the two countries, entered into force in January 2021 with the aim of supporting the continuity of trade between Egypt and the UK.

According to the UK's Trade Commissioner Emma Wade-Smith, "the agreement provides for tariff-free trade on industrial products, as well as liberalising trade in agriculture, agri-foods and fisheries, making business easier and delivering significant savings to companies in both the UK and Egypt."

"The agreement also provides a framework for furthering trade, political, economic, social and cultural links, reflecting the breadth and depth of the relationship between our two countries," she added.