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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 November 1999 Issue No. 456 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 November 1999 Issue No. 456
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Iranian-Egyptian business grows
IRANIAN businessmen attending the first Iranian Trade Exhibition in Cairo since the 1979 Islamic Revolution clinched deals worth $200 million with their Egyptian counterparts.The "First Solo Trade Exhibition of Iran", held from 1-7 November at the Nasr City Fair Grounds, was attended by more than 300 Iranian businessmen. Mehrdad Kiaei, second secretary at the Iranian Interests Section at the Swiss Embassy in Cairo, reported that contracts signed during the exhibit covered the export of a range of Iranian products, from petrochemicals and medical equipment to food products and tractors. Agreements were also concluded with JAC, an Egyptian company, to assemble Iranian-made cars and buses in Egypt.
Trade between Iran and Egypt currently stands at $75 million annually. The exhibition, Kiaei said, revealed that the "prospects for trade exchange between Egypt and Iran are much more than we are witnessing at present" and the companies attending the exhibition, could, he added, be increased "ten-fold" in the future.
The last decade has seen a steady improvement in Egyptian-Iranian relations , and the impetus to normalise relations gained further momentum with the 1997 election of President Mohamed Khatami.
Iran will take part in the coming Cairo International Trade Fair next March and the following month Egypt will hold its first trade fair ever in Tehran.
Third generation reforms
LAST week's inauguration of the Arab Regional Forum was attended by Carlos Magarinos, general-director of UNIDO, Esmat Abdel-Meguid, secretary-general of the Arab League, and Mustafa El-Rifaie, minister of industry and technology.The significance of the two day forum -- Enhancing the Competitiveness of the Industrial Sector to Meet the Challenges of Globalisation -- held on 6 and 7 November, lies in the comprehensive nature of the recommendations adopted -- recommendations that will lay the ground for the upcoming UNIDO Global Forum on Sustainable Industrial Development to be held in Vienna between 29 November and 1 December.
"The objective of the Forum," according to Magarinos, "is to create understanding of the nature of manufacturing as it will evolve in the first decade of the new century. The Forum will also serve to reposition UNIDO as the international communities' instrument for promoting industrial development."
During his visit to Cairo Magarinos met with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid and Minister of Foreign Affairs Amr Moussa. Top of the agenda in the two meetings was the development of a new programme by UNIDO promoting technical cooperation and sustainable industrial development in Egypt.
Magarinos was keen to stress during the visit that initial macro-economic reforms, followed by institutional reform, must now be capped by a third generation of policies "to develop linkages between global economic forces and domestic economies".
Aid and investment
MINISTER of state for Planning and International Cooperation Ahmed El-Darsh last week met with Richard Brown, director of the American Agency for International Development (USAID) office's in Cairo, to discuss US economic assistance over the next decade.El-Darsh told reporters that Egyptian-American relations had changed from their earlier receiver-donor basis to one in which profitable bilateral trade was at the fore.
Ways to speed up the spending of $1.3 billion of US aid already approved, topped the agenda.
In a press conference following the meeting, El-Darsh said that the government was preparing for reductions in the level of aid from the new year, and stressed that the way forward was to create an economic climate that encouraged foreign investments in Egypt. "Egypt was recently excluded from the list of [high-risk] countries in which Japan does not encourage investments," El Darsh said, underlining the fact that Egypt is becoming an increasingly attractive proposition to foreign investors.
