American companies expressed their desire to increase their investments in Egypt during the upcoming period, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr said in a statement after her meeting with representatives of US companies and banks investing in Egypt. The meeting was attended by representatives of many companies, including General Electric, AbbVie pharmaceuticals, Johnson, Cargill, Merck & Co., ExxonMobil, Kellogg's, JPMorgan Chase, and MasterCard. In the same context, Nepal Dahab, the regional director of foreign relations in the Middle East of Abbvie, said that Abbvie has been operating in Egypt for 50 years and has work size of $100m. The regional manager of Cargill in Egypt, Melvin Mink, said the company's investments in Egypt reached $200m. He added that the company plans to inject $150m in the coming period. Noha Saleem, manager of government relations at Merck & Co., praised the improvement of the investment climate in Egypt. She said she hopes to enhance the investment cooperation in the pharmaceutical field. Meanwhile, Soha Ali, JP Morgan's executive director and senior country officer of Egypt and North Africa, pointed out that the bank has been working in Egypt for 40 years and that it has a representative office in Egypt. The director of government and foreign relations at ExxonMobil, Nihad Shalabaya, said the company has 360 gas stations in Egypt and two oil-mixing plants. On the other hand, Ahmed Albakary, the general manager and CEO of Kellogg's in Egypt, stressed that the company has five factories in Egypt and 24 production lines, adding that the work volume had reached about EGP 1bn and that the company has 4,000 workers. Meanwhile, Nasr said that Egypt welcomes American investors and works to pass legislation to improve the business and investment environment. Earlier, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ratified the new Investment Law, and the cabinet approved the draft executive regulations of the law and submitted it to the State Council.
