Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met in Cairo on Monday with a delegation of US businessmen headed by US Ambassador David Thorne, the Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State for economic issues, to discuss strategic and economic cooperation between the United States and Egypt, the Egyptian Presidency announced.
According to the statement issued by Egyptian Presidency, President El-Sisi welcomed the US delegation and stressed the importance of strategic relations between Egypt and the United States, as well as how much Egypt is looking forward to cooperating with the new U.S administration to be elected in January.
The parties also discussed the progress of the Egyptian government on economic reforms as well as national programmes currently underway, particularly the Suez Canal Area Development Project.
El-Sisi also referred to a series of meetings he held with US businessmen and business sector representatives in September in New York, and how those meetings resulted in new cooperation opportunities.
The statement also quoted Thorne stating that the timing of the US delegation’s visit to Egypt was to show the United States’ support for the preliminary deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a $12 billion loan.
According to Egyptian presidency spokesperson Alaa Youssef, US Ambassador Thorne praised the Egyptian government’s efforts towards economic reform during the meeting.
The US delegation included nearly 50 representatives from major US corporations.
The meeting was attended by Egypt’s ministers of foreign affairs, telecommunications, oil, commerce and industry and finance who answered questions from the US delegation.
The US Ambassador to Egypt was also in attendance.
The Egyptian presidency said in its statement that US investments in Egypt increased from $19.3 billion in 2013 to $21.3 billion in 2014 and that US investments in Egypt represent 30% of US direct investments in Africa.
