The minister of industry and foreign trade and the Greek ambassador to Egypt discussed the future of economic relations between Egypt and Greece and ways to increase trade and investment between the two countries. Minister Hatem Saleh and Ambassador Chris Lazaris met on Tuesday, when they discussed increasing the role of the Egypt-Greek Business Council to better facilitate trade and investment between the two countries. The council was established in 2002. “The government is about to implement a large programme to support and attract investment from industrialised European economies to the Egyptian market. This would benefit the Egyptian economy and make use of its investment benefits, which include its network of trade agreements, huge market, competitive energy prices and cheap labour costs," said the minister of industry. Saleh emphasised that Egypt welcomes high technology industries with large labour needs to the Egyptian market. He specifically noted that he discussed the problems facing Greek factories in Egypt. He also said trade between the two countries amounted to $1.3 billion in 2011, but added this could increase as Greek investments in Egypt total $464 million. These investments were in services, consultancy projects, tourism, agriculture, financial and industrial sectors and other fields. Lazaris stated the importance of boosting economic cooperation between the two countries and increasing Greek investments in Egypt. The Egyptian State Information Service counts 104 Greek investment projects in Egypt, with an issued capital of EGP 1.6148 billion and a Greek share of EGP 1.2669 billion. Egyptian investments in Greece are mainly in the telecommunications sector. In February 2007, the Egyptian network operator Orascom Telecom purchased the Greek mobile phone operator Tim Hellas in a deal worth €3.4 billion before re-branding to WIND.
