Italian lending agencies have decided to raise the credit line for financing Italian investment projects in Egypt to €10 billion, the Egyptian trade minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour announced Monday. The Italian lending agencies include Italian banks and the Italian Loan Guarantee Fund. The minister said the projects, which were agreed upon at Egypt Economic Development Conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh last March, pertain to petrochemicals, engineering, transportation, energy, and infrastructure. The minister's remarks came at a meeting with Carlo Kalinda, Italian Deputy Minister of Economic Development, who is heading a delegation of 24 Italian companies visiting Egypt. He said the Italian company Danieli has expressed a desire to build a factory for heavy equipment in Egypt to serve the iron and steel factories in Egypt and the Middle East. "We are currently allocating the land for the factory," he said. For his part, Kalinda said the Italian government encourages Italian companies to participate in tenders put up by the Egyptian government and finances their projects.
