Egypt signs billions of deals in investment meeting

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Xinhua) - The second day of Egypt's Economic Development Conference (EEDC) witnessed the signing of huge investment deals worth tens of billions of US dollars with various Arab and international firms.

Energy and construction deals dominated the three-day summit which is being held in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

On Saturday, Egypt signed a $45-billion agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build the country's new business capital.

The first phase of the new capital involves a downtown city, administrative towers and hotels along with commercial areas and a stadium.

The other part of the city will group governmental premises of presidential palaces, a cabinet and various ministries. The governmental district will involve a complex of foreign embassies and a big expo.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail inked a deal worth $12 billion with energy giant British Petroleum chief Bob Dudley to expand oil exploration in the west and east banks of the Nile, as well as the Mediterranean Sea.

The new agreement, biggest ever in Egypt's history, will help to secure 25 percent of local oil production and narrow the gaps of petroleum demand in different regions by 2020.

The petroleum minister also dealt with Italian oil producer Eni Claudio Descalzi to develop and explore crude fields, worth $5 billion.

Under the agreement, gas production will gradually increase to 900 million cubic feet over the coming four years.

During the EEDC opening session on Friday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Egypt is working hard on improving investment environment through a package of important legislative and institutional reforms.

"This sends a reassurance message to investors that international leading corporations seek to invest billions of dollars in the energy industry in Egypt," Ismail told Xinhua.

Huge foreign investments are flooding to the country and the products of the projects, about five trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels of condensates, will be dedicated for the domestic market, he added.

To reassure investors, Egypt has completed a long-awaited unified investment law that initiated a "one-stop window" system at the Investment Authority to facilitate business establishment.

Also on Saturday, the UAE's Al Swaidan Trading Corporation also signed a deal with Egyptian Supply Minister Khaled Hanafi under which the UAE group will put some $2 billion into a logistics grain storage center and pump another $4 billion to establish a trade and shopping city.

The UAE has also agreed with Egypt to carry out a group of infrastructure projects in vital sectors including energy, housing,  food security, education, vocational training, healthcare and transportation.

Addressing the EEDC, the UAE State Minister Sultan al Jaber said those vital sectors were chosen so the Egyptian citizens can feel tangible change as soon as possible.

The projects will provide 900,000 job opportunities and will serve up to 10 million Egyptian citizens, he noted.

Cairo also signed memos of understanding with German engineering giant Siemens AG at a total investment cost of $10 billion to build several power stations in Egypt.

On the first day of the conference, Egypt's Gulf Arab allies have pledged a total of $12 billion in aid and investment.

The much-hyped conference, called for by late Saudi Arabia King Abdullah last year, is one of the government's centerpieces for showing that Egypt is ready for business and eager to improve its staggering economy and social disorder.

Around 90 countries, some of them represented by heads of states, and 25 organizations and international institutions take part in the Egyptian big event that was also attended by world top economists and diplomats.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, strong backers of Egypt's current military-oriented authorities, have kept Egypt's economy afloat by giving billions of dollars of cash grants and bank deposits since the ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in July, 2013.