The Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar revealed on Friday that the United States' investments in Egypt have currently amounted to $2.4bn, represented in 1,222 projects operating in the sectors of industry, services, construction, finance, agriculture, telecommunications, and information technology. Nassar added that during his meeting with members of the US-Egypt Business Council (USEBC), it was discussed that US investments in Egypt represented about 35.4% of direct American investments in the African continent, and 46.2% of US investments in the Middle East. Hence, Egypt is considered the largest future investment destination for US investments in Africa, and the second one in the Middle East. The minister noted that the trade exchange between Egypt and the US rose during the first seven months of this year by 29.2%, recording $3.822bn up from $2.956bn during the same period of 2017. He assured that the US is considered as one of the largest markets which received Egyptian exports during the first seven months of 2018, elaborating that the US has imported goods from Egypt with a value worth $832m in the period from January to July. Notably, it is scheduled that a delegation of American companies which includes officials from over 60 companies will visit Cairo at the end of this coming October, with the aim of identifying the huge investment opportunities available in the Egyptian market in various productive sectors. Hence, during the meeting, the minister discussed with the members of the USEBC, the latest updates and preparations for the visit. The meeting also dealt with several important issues on the Egyptian and American agenda at both the official and business levels, including the negotiations on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, in addition to discussing means of increasing trade exchange, and joint investment projects between the two countries during the next period.
