CAIRO : Some 25 Egyptian businessmen will go to the Polish capital Warsaw as of May 27 as part of the annual knocking door mission organized by the Egyptian Polish Businessmen Association (EPBA) for 10 years now, said Medhat Al-Kaissy, head of the EPBA. The mission achieved positive and tangible results. Egyptian exports to Poland rose last year by 50 percent against 2005, also Egyptian exports rose in the first quarter of this year by 250 percent against the same period in 2006, Kaissy told a press conference held in Cairo today in tandem with the Polish Embassy in Cairo before the visit of the businessmen. The trade exchange between Egypt and Poland increased to $197.5 million in 2006 against $150.5 million in 2005, according to initial Polish statistics, said Mrs Danuta Sojka-Andrzejewska, head of the Trade and Investment Promotion Department at the Polish Embassy in Cairo. The Polish exports to Egypt amounted to $164.7 million while the imports from Cairo totaled $32.6 million, she added. Egypt exports to Poland carpets, oil by-products, dry fruit, herbs, chemical products, electrical cables and leather while it imports from Poland cigarettes, chocolate, processed fish, coal, machines, metal products, ceramics and auto spare-parts, she went on. Kaissy explained that more Polish tourists come to Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada via charter flights. Some 200, 000 Polish tourists come annually to Egypt. We are trying also to persuade the Polish national carrier LOT to have a direct airline connecting Cairo and Warsaw to enable exporting Egyptian fruits and vegetables to Poland in less than four hours, he announced. Those products have a growing market now in Poland, Kaissy said adding that the EPBA offered LOT to book its cargo containers space for six months a year in exchange for running the airline. Negotiations are still going on, he said. The EPBA facilitates as well the export of new Egyptian products to Poland, including clothes, leather, and construction materials, Kaissy said. An Egyptian businessman established a company in Poland recently to export granite and marble from Egypt to meet the growing reconstruction demands in Poland, he added. As regards services, the Arab Contractors Company is building now a part of the Arab gas pipeline passing through Poland, he said.
