“Trade between India and Egypt increased by about 60 per cent over the last five years and this is really remarkable, as you will notice that trade between many other countries has actually stagnated. Global trade itself is festering so this is a remarkable development,” India’s Ambassador to Egypt Mr Sanjay Bhattacharyya announced in statements.
Here are glimpses on some of what Ambassador Sanjay Bhattacharyya, had to say about Egypt’s economy and joint ventures between his country and Egypt…
For us, it means that we must have more trade, we must have more investment flows, we must have more technology flows, we must have greater cooperation in developing skills and sharing each others’ experiences… we will continue to work on all these together.
But I think the potential is much greater because there are other countries in the region around Egypt who have much higher trade with India so what is it that prevents us from having even greater trade.
Bhattacharyya also said that the joint trade committee -that is going to hold a meeting next week in Cairo- will discuss different issues including ways to increase trade between both countries.
Along with a joint trade committee we have also a meeting with a joint business council, which will look at the possibilities of investments in different parts of Egypt including the Suez Canal Zone. Business will always flow where there is an opportunity for profit and if you can provide an environment for profit business will come.
I think we need to look at the tariff structure, also we need to look at are there any barriers to trade, we also need to see as to how we can promote complementarities; for instance agriculture products have been increasing in Egypt’s exports to India we are buying much more of agriculture products from Egypt may be this is an area in which the growth can be even greater.
On investments, I think the picture, in a sense, is very good because we have about 50 Indian enterprises in Egypt with a total investment of about $3 billion and if you look at it in terms of the non-hydrocarbon sector it is a very large investment, The other thing about Indian investments is they are all long-term investment. They believe in Egypt and the huge market of Egypt and huge network that Egypt has in terms of trade arrangements with the region, the Arab world, Africa and Europe. They see Egypt as a hub and so this is a very enduring partnership, a win-win partnership, India brings to people of Egypt, skills and IT technologies.
Last year’s investments were extremely promising because we had a cooperation, a joint venture in the field of pharmaceuticals which brought the Indian experience of producing a hepatitis-C medicine -an issue that is large in Egypt as we brought the cost down to 2 per cent of the international price. So India brings to Egypt reliable and affordable pharmaceuticals, we could also bring expertise and other medicines in the broader health sector in hospitals – in terms of how to manage hospitals. So, I think it is a broad band of the expertise that we bring. Some of our companies are looking at expansion over here.
If problems tackle Indian investors then others will not be attracted to cling to the market. In general the market has been favourable, the Egyptian economy has improved on several levels, growth has picked up, and inflation is not very high. There is large pool of skilled manpower so there are many positive factors in the Egyptian economy.
Once there is transparency and predictability on this fronts and they are implemented in easy manner there will be great opportunities.
I have travelled to many of the governments in Egypt. 2/3 of the Indian investment are already along the Suez Canal in other words Indian investors had long ago realised the huge potential of the Sue Canal area as a hub and I’ve been to Port Said and Ismalia and Ain Soukhna, where there are Indian investment and I found that the local authorities over there have been very helpful in many instances to Indian investors.
Tourism is very important because it brings people closer together, fortunately between India and Egypt there is very good recognition of each other. Indian tourists have continued to come to Egypt through the last few years and the numbers have actually been going up. I understand last year the increase in Indian tourists to Egypt was 27 per
