The United States' Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Ken Hyatt led a trade delegation of 11 leading companies in the field of infrastructure in a visit to Egypt. The Infrastructure Business Development Mission aims to identify business opportunities in Egypt through conducting several meetings with officials from several ministries, the American Chamber of Commerce, and private businesses. Hyatt lead a roundtable with the Egyptian media today, along with two representatives from the mission. Ahmed Nada, Vice President of First Solar, a leading global provider of comprehensive photovoltaic (PV) solar energy solutions, explained that his company has been following the Egyptian market in the last year through participating in forums and through holding workshops to spread awareness about the latest PV technologies. Nada announced his company's investment in a 50 MW project through providing technical support services for the plant. Eager to expand in the market, companies like First Solar, and several other companies, in the Energy market are still awaiting regulatory and legislative reform. On this matter Nada expressed great satisifaction with the tariff announced earlier saying, "The tariff is fair for all the players in the market and is comparable to tariffs in other markets we operate in." Nada concluded, "All projects will need financial closure, for our company to directly invest in solar energy projects, we need speed in financial and legislative reform." Ambassador Tom Riley, former US Ambassador to Morocco, and Senior Advisor for International Development in BrightSource, a leader in solar thermal energy technologies, explained that his company is currently searching for local partners in the private sector to partner with for any future investment plans in Egypt, describing the relations between BrightSource and the Egyptian market to be in the early stages and is currently ongoing in a very effective Format. The delegation is also visiting Morocco and Jordan as part of the regional tour. Such a delegation is not the first to visit the country, as a month prior to this visit; a trade delegation to of 65 companies marked the largest delegation in the history of the US chamber of Commerce. The US embassy has committed itself to sponsor such trade delegations to empower business-to-business connections and consequently economic growth. Delegates of the mission will participate in business and market briefings and conduct meetings with potential buyers and agents. The trade mission included the following companies: Ameroc Export Incm, BrightSource Energy, First Solar, General Electric, Hecate Energy, International Chem-Crete Group, Plasti-Fab, SoEnergy International, Solara Energy Group, SunEdison and Zero Mass Water.
