CAIRO: In presence of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, Barclays Bank Egypt inaugurated yesterday 10 new branches and a contact center, as part of the bank's vigorous expansion plan to cover more than 90 percent of the country by the end of this year. "Barclays is one of the UK's success stories in the banking sector.and [yet] it needs to expand and improve its services worldwide, said Prince Andrew. "Egypt is one of these places where Barclays is expanding its services and employment. This [event] shows a level of confidence in Egypt . [and] in Barclays to be able to move and invest in this part of the world. This is the Prince's second visit to Egypt as the UK's Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, a role that primarily involves building bilateral business relationships. "When I last visited Egypt in 2005, the UK was a major non-Arab investor in Egypt, and I am delighted to say that today the UK has become the single largest foreign investor, he added. "Foreign direct investment into Egypt has reached record levels, growing from $1 billion to more than $6 billion in just over five years. It looks set to grow even further, to break the $10 billion mark by the end of this fiscal year, the prince continued. "There's a lot of business to be won in Egypt, and I am delighted to see Barclays and many other British companies doing so well here. The new addition brings Barclays Egypt's network of branches to 48 (up from 14 in 2006), spread across 13 cities in 11 governorates. "We did not limit our expansion to Cairo and Alexandria, but reached out to where our customers are . in Delta, Upper Egypt, and Sinai, as opposed to four governorates a year ago, stated Frits Seegers, CEO of Barclays Global Retail and Commercial Banking (GRCB). Operating in over 50 countries worldwide, Barclays Bank seeks to dramatically boost its presence globally, particularly in emerging markets across the Middle East, North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa and India. "Egypt is a priority market for us . The reason for this focus on Egypt is simple: the increasingly favorable investment environment and economic growth in this country, [which] allows us to take advantage, explained Ahmed Khan, CEO of Barclays GRCB. Barclays Egypt also inaugurated its LE 50 million contact center, a data center that provides services for customer in Egypt on a 24-hour basis. The 130-seat center is equipped with the latest voice technology and capacity to receive up to 1,000 simultaneous calls. Additionally, the bank has made strong headway towards supporting and providing access to finance to the country's small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The bank has so far provided banking services to over 1,000 SME customers. "SMEs are the lifeblood of this economy in the future, Prince Andrew pointed out. "There are huge opportunities in Egypt, not only for Barclays, but for other banks. But the [real] opportunities are for the Egyptian people and Egyptians who don't have bank accounts.
