Egypt, Singapore trade exchange hit $220M in 2017

CAIRO – 8 August 2018: Trade Exchange between Egypt and Singapore recorded $220 million during 2017, according to Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Amr Nassar.

This came during Nassar's meeting with Ambassador of Singapore to Cairo Premjith Sadasivan to discuss ways to enhance economic cooperation between the two countries and Singapore's current and future investment projects in the Egyptian market.

Nassar and Sadasivan also discussed the possibilities of increasing trade rates between the two countries in general and Egyptian exports to Singapore in particular.

Nassar pointed out that the most important items of Egyptian exports to Singapore last year included chemical products, fertilizers, agricultural crops and food industries, while the main items of imports included engineering, and electronic goods and building materials.

The minister said that there are huge investment opportunities for the Singaporean business community in the Egyptian market in the industrial, agricultural and service fields.

He also noted that there are a number of successful investment projects in the Egyptian market in the fields of agriculture, logistics, food products and water desalination.

Nassar referred to the importance of expanding the volume of trade exchangebetween the two sides, especially that the current rates do not reflectthe distinguished bilateral relations between the two countries or the enormous potential of the Egyptian and Singaporean economies.

He revealed that the meeting also discussed the importance of establishing Nassarnotedto the possibility of benefiting from the Egyptian commercial offices spread in a large number of capitals and major African cities and also benefiting from trade, free and preferential agreements signed with a large number of the African countries.

Egypt is involved in international trade deals that came into action in the recent period.

The Mercosur Agreement, which is a free-trade agreement signed by Egypt and Mercosur countries in 2010, includes immediate customs clearance for 63 percent of the exports of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay to Egypt.

The Mercosur trade deal covers food, cars, auto parts and industrial supplies; it was signed by Egypt and Mercosur members in 2010, but only came into force in 2017.

Another trade agreement that Egypt is involved in is the deal with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), which represents a free trade area with 19 member states stretching from Libya to Swaziland. COMESA was formed in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area, which had existed since 1981.

The African Continental Free Trade Area is another agreement to ease the trade exchange between countries that have signed it, according to a scheduled timeline and not through an immediate activation of the agreement.

The African Continental Free Trade Area is considered to be the biggest deal ever signed since the World Trade Organization was established; it was signed by 43 countries.

“Egypt is keen to benefit from the Singaporean industrial expertise through the transfer of advanced industrial technologies to the Egyptian industry,” the minister said, calling on the Singaporean companies to exploit the opportunities available in the various investment sectors and benefit from the incentives provided by the Egyptian government in these sectors.

For his part, Sadasivan stressed his country's keenness to enhance joint economic cooperation with Egypt during the coming period.

He mentioned the possibility of benefiting of Singapore’s great expertise in the field of integrated industrial cities, saying it has established eight industrial cities, including four industrial cities in China, and two cities in each of Vietnam and Indonesia.