The meeting included GAFI CEO Hossam Heiba, Assistant Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade Dr. Ghada Nour, and Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) Director of Investor Relations Tarek Hashem. The American delegation was led by Nebraska's Secretary of State, Robert Evnen, and featured representatives from AGI agricultural equipment and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Secretary Evnen praised Egypt’s recent infrastructure
development, noting it meets American investors' needs for energy, water,
serviced land, and transport links to export ports. He offered Nebraska's
expertise in irrigation and water desalination technologies to support Egypt's
agricultural expansion and land reclamation plans.
Discussions also covered collaboration between the University
of Nebraska Medical Center and the Egyptian government to advance medical
technologies and promote medical tourism. Evnen highlighted Egypt's strong
potential in this sector, citing natural assets like sulfur springs, skilled
personnel, an existing tourism infrastructure, and proximity to major tourist
markets in the Gulf and Europe.
GAFI CEO Heiba welcomed the proposals, confirming that the
Egyptian government offers investment incentives for projects that localize
modern technologies. He emphasized that the targeted sectors, health, tourism,
agriculture, and land reclamation, are prioritized for incentives because they
align with Egypt's developmental goals, including job creation, improving
living standards, boosting foreign currency, and technology transfer.
Heiba added that Egypt is seeing high investment demand,
driven by trade agreements that grant Egyptian goods and services access to a
massive market of 3 billion consumers across the Middle East, Africa, and the
European Union.
Dr. Nour, Assistant Minister of Investment, underscored the
government’s goal to boost the presence of American companies, which have
operated successfully in Egypt for decades. She highlighted that the State
Ownership Policy Document has strengthened the investment climate by confirming
the private sector’s leadership in economic growth. Dr. Nour urged American
firms to accelerate their investments to help Egypt achieve its target of increasing
the value of annual exports to $125 billion by 2030.
Separately, SCZONE's Tarek Hashem invited the US delegation to visit the economic zone, which features four industrial areas and six ports across 455 square kilometers. He stressed that its location on the world's most critical shipping lane, handling 12% of global trade, facilitates integration into global value chains.