Eng. Hatem Saleh, Egyptian Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade, said the country needs new investments estimated with $70 billion for creating job opportunities that would eliminate the unemployment rates which reached 18%, according to the last statistics announced. The government is exerting double efforts to implement this target which greatly tops the priorities of the cabinet's plans. This would be through providing more facilities to establish new investments whether by Egyptian and foreign capitals or by investment partnerships, Saleh said. During his keynote speech for the 2nd annual conference of the AmCham MENA Regional Council, the Minister asserted that the government is facing hard financial and economic challenges that definitely influence the new investment flows and the cabinet's efforts to support them in the coming period. Saleh referred that one of the problems facing the emerging economies is the lack of skilled labor elaborating that 20% prefer to work abroad. The minister had slammed the weak performance of exporting in the MENA region as these countries' exports record about $365 billion each year; while this record is equal to the exports of Belgium which has a population of about 10 million.
