The EU Egypt Task Force Business and Tourism Summits will be held on Tuesday in Cairo. The summits organised by the Egyptian business unions will be followed by a series of meetings between representatives from the Egyptian and the European sides. The joint task force that was put into practice in Jordan and Tunisia will convene for the first time in Egypt. It is a new mechanism for dialogue that was implemented to foster cooperation between Europe and the Arab Spring countries. This innovative mechanism is intended to complement the already existing exchange channels; the Egyptian European association council and technical sub committees. Among the agreements that are expected to be signed during the summit, there is a €20 million trade and domestic market enhancement programme, a €22 million agreement for support through agricultural small enterprise and a €40 million fund to support the third metro line going from Imbaba to the Cairo airport. The meetings will be attended by the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, the European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani, the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule, the President of the European Investment Bank Werner Hoyer, the foreign ministers of eight EU countries, the head of the European chambers union and more than 150 chairmen of European companies, as stated by the president of the Egyptian European chambers union Nader Riad. Egypt will be represented by Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, and the ministers of foreign affairs, investment, industry and foreign trade, planning and international cooperation, scientific research, electricity and energy, facilities and transportation, said the chairman of the Egyptian chambers union, Ahmed El Wakil. The tourism summit will be headed by the Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou and Antonio Tajani in the presence of the leaders of the unions of tourism, hotels and ships and the presidents of the big European countries working in the field. The meetings will discuss an action plan for attracting European tourism and touristic investment focusing on the sustainable tourism and tourism development in Upper Egypt, clarified the head of tourism chambers union Ilhamy El-Zayat. The chairperson of the Egyptian industries union Galal El-Zorba added that this summit is a part of the union's programme to provide growth opportunities for the Egyptian economy, and to create jobs for the Egyptians, he added that the objective of the meeting is to put a roadmap for development, to open communication channels between companies on both sides of the Mediterranean, to create investment and commercial partnerships, and to maximise the benefit from the aid and finance mechanisms available for the Mediterranean area that exceed €22 billion. The president of the investors' associations union Mohamed Farid Khamis said that the summit is in line with various activities that aim to create alliances between Egyptian business unions to attract investments, promote exports and to innovate the industrial and services sectors . These activities include participation in international exhibitions and conferences and the connectivity between Egyptian and European companies targeting joint industrialisation or common action to enter regional markets, as well as many meetings aiming to resolve the problems of Egyptian and foreign investors and exporters and opening foreign markets for Egyptian products. Promoting joint investments, technology transfer, human resources development, attracting European tourism mechanisms and megaprojects in infrastructure are on the agenda of the meetings, said the Secretary General of the summit Alaa Ezz.
