Italian joint-stock company SACE is to fund the project of upgrading Egypt's largest oil refinery Midor near Alexandria with the cost of US$1.2 billion, Italian Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi said Thursday. By the agreement -that was made during the visit of the Italian delegation headed by Guidi-SACE is to develop Midor with 3 percent rate of interest. Minister Guidi made these remarks during a press conference held after her meeting with the Egyptian Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Qabil. She clarified that Italy is committed to deepening its relations with Egypt and entering into economic partnership that targets working jointly in Africa and Middle East markets not only the commercial and investment cooperation. Guidi noted that her visit to Egypt comes to assert that the Italian government cares for enhancing its strategic relations with Egypt since there is a number of Italian firms that keen on investing in the Egyptian market. The minister came to Egypt heading a mission encompassing 30 firms that work in furniture, energy, transport, power, and construction sectors to discuss investment opportunities in Egypt. On other side, Egyptian government cares for providing Italian investors with necessary facilities to inject new investments into the Egyptian market notably in the large national projects, the minister pointed out. Minister Guidi said that there are a number of mutual cooperation fields between Egypt and Italy in which the Italian firms could invest notably infrastructure, steel, cement, petrochemicals in addition to new and renewable energy. In July 2015, Technip Italy, a world leader in project management for the energy industry, has finalised two joint agreements valued at a total of $2.9 billion with Egypt-based companies for upgrades of two refineries in Egypt.
