Coco Cola has pledged to invest $500 million in Egyptian economy which will create 4000 direct jobs. Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, hosted Coca-Cola executives at the presidential palace on Thursday ahead of the economic development conference; presidential spokesperson Alaa Youssef was quoted as saying by the state-owned news agency MENA. During his visit to Egypt, Muhtar Kent, the Coca-Cola chief executive officer (CEO), reiterated his company's pledge to invest $500 million in Egypt over the coming three years to create an estimated 4,000 direct jobs. A new juice plant will be established as part of these investments at a cost of $100 million. Through this project, Coca-Cola will hold contracts with 10,000 farmers for fruit supplies. In March 2014, the company announced that the pledged investments would come in the form of capital expenditures and other commercial and community programs. These include plans to refurbish 100 rural villages by 2020 under the Egypt Livelihood community program. The global beverages company achieved more than $7 billion in consolidated net income in 2014, representing a 17 percent drop from the prior year. In a previous meeting, Sisi hosted Joe Kaeser, CEO of the electrical solutions multinational Siemens AG, who asserted his company's interest to further develop projects in Egypt. Egypt is holding an economic development conference mid-March in the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh to encourage businesses to invest in the economy which has been battered by four years of political turmoil since the popular uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
