CAIRO - Egypt could attract more investments, following its transitional democratic phase, the President of the Arab-German Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Rainer Herret, told the official Middle East News Agency on Tuesday. Herret added that the German Government will consider the economic policies adopted by all Egyptian political powers, including the Muslim Brotherhood, expecting that the Brotherhood will get more if they participate in the forthcoming government. The Brotherhood have recently announced that they will compete for the half of the People's Assembly seats in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in September. Herret ruled out the idea of decreasing German's investments in Egypt if the Brotherhood come to power, stressing that the new political parties should implement a group of economic policies to boost investment and enhance the Egyptian economy's competitiveness. The German official played down the concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood winning the elections. "Islam is a moderate religion, which encourages dialogue with the other and denounces violence and extremism," he explained. He expects that German investments will increase in Egypt in the next phase, as his country wants to boost relations with Egypt, its third biggest partner in the area, after the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Concerning German exports to African countries, Herret said that Egypt is a gate for exports to the rest of Africa, noting that Germany wants to benefit from Egypt's experiences with trading in Africa. Herret added that the Egyptian-EU agreement has done much to boost economic and trade co-operation between Cairo and Berlin. He pointed out that the EU is ready to do all it can to support the Egyptian economy, following the January 25 revolution, calling for considering subsidies to meet Egyptians' needs.
