Spanish investments in Egypt amount to €826m: Commercial Service chief

Egyptian exports to Spain increased to €1.4bn in 1H 2022, compared to €485m in 1H 2021: Elwathik Bellah

Spanish investments in Egypt amounted to €826m in different sectors, such as electricity, renewable energy, building materials, food industries, tourism, etc, according to Yahya Elwathik Bellah, Chairperson of the Egyptian Commercial Service (ECS).
"The cooperation between our two countries is witnessing a huge leap in the transportation sector, taking into consideration the big interest the Egyptian government gives to this sector," he added.
He pointed out that the investment climate in Egypt in the past few years, witnessed many legislative acts institutional reforms for the purpose of facilitating and simplifying procedures for investors, contributing to achieving positive results in the fields of companies incorporation in terms of time, costs, numbers of procedures needed to carry out activities
His remarks came during the second edition of the "Egypt-Spain Multilateral Partnership Forum", which was held in Cairo on 27 and 28 September 2022. This conference is considered the biggest Spanish event organized in Cairo since the visit of the Spanish Prime Minister to Cairo last December.
ElWathik Bellah said that Spain is considered one of the most important trading partners to Egypt in the European Union and all over the world, with a trade volume amounting to €2.7m in 2021 compared to €2.1m in 2020, with a growth of 31.2%.
He explained further that Egyptian exports reached €1.2bn in 2021 compared to €659m in 2020, with a growth rate of approximately 80%. As for imports, it increased by 9% in 2021, reaching €1.6bn from about €1.46bn in 2020.
"The Egyptian exports to Spain witnessed an ongoing upward scale, settling at €1.4bn in the first half of this year, compared to €485m in the same period of 2021," Elwathik Bellah revealed.
He continued that in the first half of this year, trade volume increased with a value of €2.1bn in just six months, compared to the same period in the previous year, with a growth of 37%.
He concluded that with the current challenges the global economy is facing, he would like to reiterate that the Egyptian government welcomes and invites the Spanish side to come and invest in Egypt, promising to exert all its endeavors and efforts to enhance the economic trade and investment relations between Spain and Egypt.
Also, he assured that Egypt welcomes the Spanish investments to benefit from the preferential market access that Egypt offers to regional and international markets through the FTA signed between Egypt and a set of major trading partners and regional and international economic partners.