Trade exchange between Egypt, Britain reaches $1.3B: BEBA

CAIRO – 28 November 2018: Trade exchange between Egypt and Britain recorded about $1.3 billion, according to Board Member of British Egyptian Business Association (BEBA) Khaled Zaki.

Zaki said that the association is working on increasing the volume of trade exchange and boosting the economic and trade relationship between both countries.

He affirmed that Britain has big investments in Egypt as it is considered the biggest foreign investor in the Egyptian market, noting that its significant investments are in the sectors of Petroleum, gas, technology (like Vodafone Company), Banks (like HSBC), and the medical sector, among others.

Zaki added during his participation in the knock door mission in the United Kingdom that the mission focuses on the sectors of health and education,within the framework of the political leaders’ keenness to focus on these fields during the next four years, in addition to the petroleum, gas and transport sectors.

“The meetings target exchanging points of view and reviewing investment opportunities in both countries to enhance the economic relations,” the board member of BEBA said.

BEBA organized a knock door mission to UK from November 27 to 30 to support the economic relationship between both countries and to promote investment opportunities in Egypt.

Minister of Finance Mohamed Ma’it and about 50 Egyptian companies participate in the mission, to support the economic relations between Cairo and London and review the achieved progress of the Egyptian economic indicators and the investment opportunities in the state.

Egyptian Ambassador to Britain Tarek Adel stated during the mission that Egypt’s exports to Britain increased 27 percent during the January-September 2018 period, compared to the same period of 2017, declining trade deficit by 40 percent.
Adel added that more than 350,000 British tourists visited Egypt during the January-October 2018 period despite the ban of direct flights to Sharm El-Sheikh airport, up from 300,000 tourists in 2017.

Previously, Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Amr Nassar said that trade Exchange between Egypt and the United Kingdom recorded $1.33 billion during the first half of 2018.

The minister stated that the British investments in Egypt recorded $5.6 billion through 1450 projects in the fields of industry, services, constructions, tourism, finance, agriculture, telecommunications and information technology.

Former Minister of Industry and Foreign trade Tarek Kabil said that the trade exchange between Egypt and Britain recorded £447 million ($593.22 million) during the first quarter of 2018, compared to £414.8 million during the first three months of 2017.

Trade exchange between the two countries reached £1.86 billion in 2017.

Generally, Britain is looking forward to discussing the economic relations with several countries ahead of its decision to leave the European Union, which is known as Brexit.

Brexit is a combination of two words, “British” and “exit”, and refers to the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. In June 2016, the British electorate voted to leave the EU with a percentage of 51.9 percent.