CAIRO: Egypt's Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid said that Egypt has “turned the page” on the annual aid in its relationship with the United States and has started a new page of “partnership in trade and investment projects.” The statements come as Washington continues to delve into human rights issues over its nearly $2 billion in aid to the North African nation. A number of American legislators and human rights groups have called on the Obama administration to curtail the amount of aid being delivered to Egypt until certain requirements, such as democracy and human rights standards are met. Rachid said at a press conference with the Board of Egyptian-American Business, attended by US Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey, last week, that Egypt appreciates the interest of the United States to provide material and military aid to Egypt over the past 30 years, but this phase of the deal on aid “is over and that the two countries [have] started a new phase, based on the existence of common interests and mutually beneficial exchange of trade and joint investment projects.” The minister added that relations between the two countries also “crossed the stage of the dispute over the free trade agreement through a strategic partnership agreement between the two sides, which was signed in June last year.” He said that agreement “caught” the attention of both President Barack Obama and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak “in order to double the trade volume between Egypt and the United States, which reached, at the end of last year, about $7 billion and the target is $14 billion in the next 4 years.” The hope is to increase the size of US investments in Egypt, which currently amounts to around $9 billion. Egypt is the largest African and Arab country in terms of the attraction of American investment. Rachid continued, saying the US “side is considering the request of Egypt to include new industrial zones in Upper Egypt to the QIZ protocol to help companies investing in Upper Egypt to export to the US market.” For her part, Scobey said President Obama will hold, later this month, an expanded conference on entrepreneurship, “where Egypt and Indonesia were chosen as models for countries that have achieved tangible success in this area.” A delegation of Egyptian investors will participate in the conference from the fields of energy, oil and gas. Concerning an American report, which warned businessmen and American investors that there is “corruption on a large scale in Egypt that impedes the implementation of their work,” which was published last month, the American ambassador said she “doesn’t know anything about this report.” Taher Helmy, President of the Egyptian side in the joint business council, said that it had been agreed to establish a fund financed by the private sector in both countries “in addition to governmental support for spending on training for small investors and manufacturers in both countries on how the success of their business, along with interest in the development of education and the exchange of missions student from on both sides.” He added that the board met recently with Gamal Mubarak, Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Policies Committee, and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, the ministers of oil, trade, electricity, communications and information technology in order to “work out more communication on how to make this a major success.” He pointed out that the most prominent themes that the joint business council focus on is “to support the Egyptian-American relations and to encourage joint investments and the protection of intellectual property rights and continue the program of legislative reform and facilitate trade.” Steve Knight, President of the American side in the joint business council, said that American companies working in the field of electric and nuclear power “have substantial interest currently in the Egyptian market and there are American companies expected to enter the Egypt market in the coming period under the direction of the Egyptian government towards the establishment of a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes and electricity production, considering that US companies have extensive experience in this field.” BM
