Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam has confirmed his attendance to Egypt's Economic Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh from 13-15 March, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said in a statement Saturday. On 13 February, Minister of Industry and Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, alongside an Egyptian delegation, attended the Egyptian-Lebanese Business Forum that was held in Beirut. During the visit, Abdel Nour met with a number of Lebanese officials. Separate discussions were held with the Ministers of Agriculture and Tourism, as well as Abdel Nour's counterpart. The discussions mainly involved strengthening relations between the two countries. Abdel Nour also held talks with several Lebanese investors, four of whom will visit Egypt by the end of the week to study the available investment opportunities. These will specifically be in the four main sectors of "textiles, electrical transformers, food industries and building materials". Meanwhile, a delegation responsible for promoting the summit met with more than 20 department heads of Italian companies who confirmed their attendance at the summit. The companies specialise in a number of sectors such as energy, electronics, infrastructure and architecture. In addition, Taher Al-Sharif, Secretary General of the Egyptian-British Chamber of Commerce, stressed the importance of the British participation in the summit. He noted that the UK is the second largest foreign investor in Egypt, after Saudi Arabia. He further highlighted that Britain has cumulative investments in Egypt since 1992, far exceeding $22bn, and more than 60% are in the oil and gas sector. Moreover, Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman met with the Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Song Aiguo and announced Thursday that China will be participating in the economic summit. Furthermore, Kuwait's Emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, confirmed his attendance through personal telegram to the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Wednesday. Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb invited businessmen and investors to participate in Egypt's Economic Summit and urged them to pump more investments into the country during his visit to the Dubai Government Summit in February. A promotional campaign is being undertaken by the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FEDCOC) in that regard. Visits were paid to Brussels, Luxemburg, Russia, Berlin, and Moscow, where representatives from the Federation invited and urged foreign investors to participate in the Summit. Government officials are taking serious measures to make sure that various countries and international companies would fly to Egypt in March to attend the summit. Egyptian delegations will continue visits to various countries in the coming period to promote it. Meanwhile, long awaited reforms or amendments to a number of Egyptian investment laws are yet to be revealed. Those amendments are key drivers that will determine whether foreign investors will actually invest in the country in the coming period or not. Investment Minister Ashraf Salman had previously revealed that the investment law is being amended to unify the process of obtaining licences through a ‘one-stop shop' investment window. It will also set out a mechanism for settling disputes quickly and successfully. The Economic Summit will open the doors for international and domestic investors to participate and know more about available investment opportunities in Egypt. The summit will present 30 different investment projects worth a total of $20bn.
