Egyptian Finance Minister, Dr. Samir Radwan, met with French Foreign Trade Minister, Pierre Lellouche, now on an official visit to Egypt heading a delegation of French MPs, 20 CEOs of large French companies working in Egypt and representatives of French government agencies interested in boosting business with the Egyptian market.

The French Foreign Trade Minister asserted that his country is highly willing to extend technical aid to Egypt in the field of setting strict economic laws that are more transparent and loophole-free with the purpose of combating corruption. Such laws would contribute to a higher degree of transparency and accuracy in economic and financial dealings. This is particularly relevant as France has recently passed a number of similar laws.

Lellouche expressed his trust in the Egyptian economy and its ability to recover from the current crisis, confirming the appreciation of the French people and government of the Egyptian Revolution which managed to achieve its goals peacefully with the least possible costs, especially that Revolution calls for freedom and democracy—concepts fully supported by France.

France’s support of economic development in Egypt, he added, will take the form of boosting investments and increasing mutual trade with Egypt, encouraging French investors and entrepreneurs to invest in Egypt, which is considered long-term support for this country. This will also help the Egyptian economy to recover from the negative repercussions of the recent events as well as increasing development and incomes.

During the meeting, the French minister extended an invitation to Dr. Radwan to visit France to deliver a speech before the French Business Organisations Conference, in which major entrepreneurs in France will participate, to encourage them to invest in Egypt and to highlight the investment opportunities available in the Egyptian market.

Dr. Radwan, in his turn, said Egypt welcomed all French investments as security and stability were being restored which would make it possible for direct investments to flow back to the Egyptian markets.

 Dr. Radwan explained to the French delegation the measures taken recently by the Egyptian government to overcome the crisis. Egypt is now in the post-crisis investment period which requires greater support from its partners in the fields of boosting joint investment, increasing mutual trade and opening markets to Egyptian exports.

The government wants to execute all public projects through previously declared measures in total transparency, adopting principles of transparency, free information flow, and making all figures and data publicly available. Egypt respects transparency and combating corruption, and private businesses will have to comply with international transparency standards.

The minister added Egypt has to achieve high growth rates and a fair distribution of the proceeds of this growth. This can be accomplished through targeting growth rates that can create more jobs and establish social justice.

The Egyptian government will focus, in the coming period, on a number of main points, most important of which is implementing several projects which will create job opportunities in the near future. For instance, there are projects of infrastructure which started earlier and currently need partial financing.

The Finance Minister noted that the government’s vision of facing the current problems includes as well a plan of expansion of small and middle-sized projects linking their products to export needs, in addition to studying a number of national giant projects which will transform the structure of Egyptian economy and pave the way for greater foreign investments.

(Source:Ministry of Finance)