Sisi’s visit to Saudi Arabia to boost trade, investments in Egypt

CAIRO – 23 April 2017: Bilateral trade between Egypt and Saudi Arabia stood at $4.3 billion, Minister of Trade and Industry, Tarek Kabil, said in a statement on Sunday.

He added that President Abdel-Fatah el-Sisi’s current visit to Saudi Arabia will further boost commercial and trade relations between both states.

President Sisi arrived today in Saudi Arabia at an invitation from the Saudi king, Salman bin Abdul Aziz. The visit aims to strengthen bilateral ties after months of tension between Egypt and the Saudi kingdom.

Egypt’s exports to Saudi Arabia include steel, agricultural products, fruits, dairy products and electric appliances, kabil said, adding that Egypt’s exports of agricultural products to the oil-rich kingdom are steadily increasing every year.

Egypt’s imports from the kingdom include petroleum and petrochemical products.
Kabil said that Saudi Arabia comes first among Arab states in terms of investing in Egypt, with total investments exceeding $6 billion in some 3,421 projects in the fields of industry, housing, information technology, agriculture, tourism and transpiration, among others.

Egypt’s investments in the Kingdom, meanwhile, amount to $2.5 billion in 1,300 projects in construction, telecommunications, health care and industry sectors.
Member of the Egyptian side in the Saudi-Egyptian business council, Ahmed el-Wakil, said that Sisi’s visit will lay the ground for the execution of projects in the energy sector, which will be carried out by the Egyptian government in partnership with the Saudi company, Acwa Power.

Other projects will also be executed in the Suez Canal area in addition to real estate projects in the North Coast, Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada, all of which have been signed in April last year.

King Salman visited Egypt in April 2016 for a five-day trip.
Wakil told Egypt today on Sunday that Sisi’s visit to Saudi Arabia coincides with a series of reforms in the economic climate in Egypt, which in turn will help attract more investments to the country.

Tension between Egypt and Saudi Arabia has been rising since October 2016; Egypt voted in favor of a Russian-drafted UN Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in Aleppo but did not explicitly mention a halt in air strikes.