To begin with, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who was the main guest of Thursday’s Republic Day parade, urged India to invest in mega-infrastructure projects in his country as Egypt faces a deep economic crisis and asked to participate.
Moreover, sources say this is one of the topics that has been constantly discussed between the Egyptian side and the Indian leadership over the past two days, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These discussions took place at a time when economic ties between China and Egypt had grown over the years.
Egypt welcomes India’s investment
Besides, this push was also reflected in the joint statement of both sides, in which the two leaders said they welcomed India’s increased investment in Egypt, which currently totals over $3.15 billion. They agreed to encourage companies from each country to explore new business and investment opportunities in each other’s countries, it said.
Furthermore, “Egypt welcomes the flow of more Indian investments and promises to offer incentives and facilities as per applicable regulations and frameworks. On its part, India underlines its support for this approach by encouraging its companies, which have the potential to establish overseas investments, to make use of the available investment opportunities in Egypt,” it said.
Egypt eyes economic growth
Meanwhile, during his meetings in Delhi with Indian leaders, including External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and President Droupadi Murmu, and the business community, Sisi stressed on Egypt’s keenness to develop economic and trade cooperation with Indian companies, as well as joint investments, sources said.
Furthermore, the development of the Suez Canal area, which includes a number of major industrial and logistics zones, was one of the key areas underlined, they said. The joint statement said: “In this context, the Egyptian side considers the possibility of allocating a special area of land for the Indian industries in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCEZ), and the Indian side can arrange for the master plan.”
In addition, according to sources, the Egyptian President said there are various investment opportunities offered by mega projects being implemented in Egypt. Moreover, Egypt has not requested any budgetary support, but some of the key projects in the spotlight include the Cairo-Alexandria metro project, the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the Second Suez Canal, and a new administrative capital outside Cairo.