The Egyptian Ministry of Industry and Foreign Trade will hold a conference next February around the Egyptian-Italian cooperation in Cairo to take up boosting the joint investments and ventures between the two sides in the coming period, by the participation of private-sector businessmen. Te trade exchange volume between Egypt and Italy from January to August 2011 amounted to € 3.5 billion, compared to € 3.16 million at the same period of 2010, said Hatem Saleh, Egyptian Minister of Industry. Egypt's most important exports to Italy are petroleum, crops, textile, raw leather, iron and its products. Meanwhile, Italian exports to Egypt are machines, chemical and petroleum products, iron, pipes, and car engines. The head of the Italian side in the Egyptian-Italian Business Council has affirmed that the council keens on playing an effective role to enhance the opportunities of economic and commercial cooperation between the two states, and boost the trade exchange volume as well as the joint investments. He referred to the joint conference, which will be held next February, as a great opportunity to develop and boost the cooperation between the businessmen in the two countries. He hailed the cooperation with the Egyptian side over redeveloping the Egyptian railways; particularly there is an actual cooperation in this field. On the same context, Claudio Pacifico, the Italian ambassador to Egypt, said Egypt is one of the most important strategic partners to Italy in the Middle East and Africa, whether on the political level or the economic one. Although the hard circumstances that Egypt lived during 2011, but the Italian investments insisted to continue in Egypt during the past period, in addition that more Italian businessmen are willing to boost investments in Egypt in the coming period.
