Executives from around 70 major US companies were in Cairo this week for a three-day visit. The delegation, which met with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb, was organised by the US-Egypt Business Council and hosted in Egypt by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham Egypt). “This is the US Chamber's largest international trade delegation ever,” said the US embassy Website in Cairo. The delegation was led by US senior advisor Ambassador David Thorne and included representatives from the US Export-Import Bank and the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation. The visit is Thorne's fourth trip to Egypt in the last nine months. “We look forward to productive discussions on ways to support Egypt's economic initiatives that encourage expanded US trade and investment,” Thorne told a conference hosting the delegation organised by AmCham. According to AmCham President Anis Aclimandos, changes in the Egyptian economy had encouraged the companies to visit Egypt, especially since the government had shown a desire to make adjustments to investment and labour laws and issue a new energy tariff. Various Egyptian officials took turns to tell the participants about developments in the Egyptian economy. Minister of Industry Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour focused on the economic reforms carried out this year, especially the energy subsidy reforms. Meanwhile the minister of investment referred to new laws easing investment procedures. Delegation members meanwhile had different interests. Sean Strawbridge, vice-president of international asset development at the Oxbow Corporation which has been in Egypt for 24 years and exports raw materials to the fertilisers industry, told Al-Ahram Weekly that his company had participated because the government's approval of the use of coal at cement plants could create new investment opportunities. Craig Duell, general manager for PHP, which works in oil exploration in Egypt, said that it also saw new opportunities and would increase investment. A US businessman of Egyptian origin, Mustafa Al-Alaili, who is the managing director of the American Trade and Technology company, said that he had started his business in the US 20 years ago. “I have been thinking about investing in Egypt every day, but I was scared of the bureaucracy,” he said, adding that he had come to Cairo to explore the new situation in the country to see how he could offer his support. The relationship between Egypt and the US worsened following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi last July, and the US suspended the delivery of 10 Apache helicopters that had previously been agreed upon. The US said in April that the helicopters remained in storage in the United States amid concerns that they could be used against civilians. However, the US announced the release of the Apache helicopters recently, just six weeks after Al-Sisi's visit to Washington in support of Egypt's fight against Islamic State militants. US businessmen were only interested in business, according to Hani Kesess, a member of AmCham, and they did not care about political affairs. Kesess's opinion may be partially true, but while delegation members were announcing to the media their desire to invest or increase their investment in Egypt, in conversations with their Egyptian counterparts they were keen to discover the latest political and security developments.
