ATHENS - Plagued by violence and political instability, the Egyptian government is struggling to attract direct foreign investment, a former minister of the current Egyptian government told New Europe on 23 April.
Kamal Abu Fitta, who resigned from minister of labour a few weeks ago, was part of a political delegation to Greece and other European countries, including Germany and Switzerland, to seek support for his country.
He said that the main aim of implementing a transitional roadmap is to bring complete stability in Egypt.
“Attracting foreign direct investment is one of the top priorities not only of the Egyptian government but the whole society,” he said. He claimed that “the security situation is improving compared to a couple of months ago and as soon as we continue the implementation of the roadmaps we expect a more stable country and also we expect to have more political stability and also we would like to pave the way for attracting more foreign investments”.
Bombings and shootings targeting the police have become common since the overthrow of elected president Mohamed Morsi by the army but the former minister claimed that foreign oil and gas companies do not face any risk. “The security situation is improving – just some terrorist elements are targeting police officers in heavily crowded places in order to just commit their crime and escape, but the industrial zones and tourist destinations are completely safe,” Abu Fitta said.
Egypt is seeking to revive confidence in the economy after years of turmoil. The country has previously said it would repay a further $3 billion in monthly installments until 2017 as an incentive to encourage foreign oil companies to increase exploration and production.
Abu Fitta reminded that Egypt plans to repay money it owes to international firms as part of a repayment scheme seeking to revive confidence in the economy after years of turmoil. Egypt said this week it will pay about $1 billion of the money it owes to foreign oil companies within the next two months. Egypt says it owes some $6.3 billion to those companies.
“The government is keen to pay all its debts to the oil and gas companies in Egypt because this gives an indication to the willingness and resolve of the Egyptian government to attract more foreign companies, especially in oil and gas sector,” the former minister said.
“It is not only paying our arrears to the oil and gas companies but also the government has a plan to pay its debts to the contactors in Egypt, to the construction companies in order to boost the economic development and make sure that the economy is going start and achieve higher percentage growth in order to create more jobs and also to make sure the economy is moving forward,” Abu Fitta said, who was an activist in the revolution of 2011 and 2013 and says he is still playing his role as a political and labour activist in Egypt.
Egypt has been struggling to meet soaring energy bills caused by high subsidies on fuel products for its 85 million people, most of whom are poor and uneducated.
The popular uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and Mursi in 2013 following widespread protests against him has increased political turmoil.
Turning to the Suez Canal, Abu Fitta said developing this national project is of outmost importance because of its geo-strategic location. “It could be an outlet to the Egyptian population and also it could add huge value to the Egyptian economy because we consider development and reducing unemployment and also creating more jobs as a key for the Egyptian stability, to combating poverty and also ignorance and any kind of radicalism,” he said.
Regarding relations with Russia, the former minister noted that Egyptian-Russian relations are very deep. “You have to take into account that many of the public sector companies and factories were built either with Russian technology or with Russian support and this is an issue for the government, the modernisation of these factories and institutions and we are looking for the Russians to modernise and assist in that field – in energy as well,” he said.
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