President "El Sisi" met with a number of CEOs of Austrian companies in Vienna

Cairo – Eco – Fady Labib : Earlier today in Vienna, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met with a number of CEOs of Austrian companies as well as members of the Egyptian Austrian Business Council ...

The President expressed his keenness to meet with the members of the Austrian business community and affirmed Egypt's appreciation for this community's role in the economic development. He added that Egypt is keen to further enhance this role to optimize mutual benefits and make the best use of available opportunities.

President El Sisi explained that Egypt has taken steady steps to implement the economic reform program, which is based on adopting fiscal and monetary procedures that address structural imbalances, regulating the state budget and providing an environment conducive to attracting foreign investment. This has reflected positively on the overall economic indicators in Egypt, to which international institutions attest.

The President also referred to the important role played by the private sector in the development process. Accordingly, Egypt has applied policies aimed at providing a competitive and attractive business environment, setting up a framework that stimulates investment, enacting an integrated package of legislation to overcome obstacles that hampered the private sector in the past and preparing a comprehensive investment map that covers all the economic sectors.

The President explained that there is a significant leap at the level of development, whereby the Egyptian government has established a series of mega national projects to stimulate the economy, boost growth rates, provide more employment opportunities and attract foreign investments, namely the Suez Canal Area Development Project. This is in addition to establishing new cities and urban communities, including the new administrative capital city, as well as upgrading the national road network across Egypt, increasing reliance on renewable energy and mega agricultural projects and seeking to localize industries in Egypt.

The President referred to the relative advantages that the Egyptian market enjoys; foremost security, the availability of the necessary infrastructure and skilled labor, the financial and tax advantages and incentives, the appropriate legislative structure provided by the new investment law, the full range of free and preferential trade agreements that Egypt shares with major markets and economic blocs, especially the European Union, Africa, and Arab countries. These provide preferential advantages to products manufactured and exported from the Egyptian market. This is in addition to Egypt's balanced foreign policy with the region's countries, which is based on cooperation and mutual respect so as to provide an environment conducive to investment. President El Sisi affirmed that Egypt looks forward to increasing Austrian investments in Egypt and launching a strong economic and investment partnership with the Austrian business community to implement joint projects that realize the interests of the two parties and benefit from the promising investment opportunities available in various sectors.

The members of the Austrian business community that attended the meeting lauded the outcome of the economic reform and overall improvement in Egypt's investment climate, which shall encourage and optimize investment cooperation between the two countries. They highlighted the advanced position that Egypt enjoys as a cornerstone for stability in the Middle East and Africa.

The Austrian investors also pointed to the importance of increasing the value of trade between the two countries and increasing the Austrian investments in Egypt. This shall take place through making the best use of various investment opportunities in the sectors of renewable energy, petrochemicals, health, therapeutic tourism, pharmaceutical, and food industries, sewage treatment, and desalination, the modernization of railways, construction and urban planning, information and communication technology. This is in addition to penetrating other markets in the region through free trade agreements that Egypt concluded in the region.