Egyptian, Saudi governments draft agreement on investment protection

CAIRO – 16 September 2024: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli met Monday Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Bin Ibrahim al-Kharif, presenting financial and tax incentives as well as top-performing industrial sectors.

The meeting took place on the second day of the prime minister's visit to Riyadh, and was attended by the Egyptian ministers of finance and investment as well as the ambassadors of the two countries. The goal of the visit is discussing possible Saudi investments in Egypt so as the prime minister had met with Saudi Minister of Commerce Majid bin Abdullah Al-Qasabi.

The prime minister noted that the governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia were drafting an agreement on protecting the investments of each on the other's soil as the number of Egyptian investors in the latter had been growing, while there had already been many Saudi investments in the former.

On his side, Minister al-Kharif pointed out that, following the launch of Saudi Arabia's Industrial Strategy, Egypt was one of the major partners in the sector in 2023. He added that the industry ministries of the two countries were identifying the areas of integration to enhance collaboration between investors from both states. In that framework, the Saudi minister highlighted that Egypt had all the capabilities needed, and that there had already been cooperation with major Egyptian producers on manufacturing sustainable products and on training.

Regarding the mining sector, Prime Minister Madbouli displayed the types of mineral resources Egypt had. In turn, the Saudi minister underlined the necessity of achieving integration in that sector given the similarities, shedding light on the existing partnerships in the field.

In a related context, the meeting tackled cooperation on food industries, automotives, and pharmaceuticals.