CAIRO – According to universal understanding, investors are cowards and dislike insecurity. Hence, they channel their money to safe regions. Egyptian investors are no different and adhere to the same rules. I was not surprised, when someone asked for my help in publishing an article about the opening of a new hotel in Oman, built by a big Egyptian company, which invested huge profits made at home in its new hotel project abroad. Its owners and managers would have expressed their sense of belonging more appropriately, if they had embarked on investment projects in the motherland. It is apparent that instability and lawlessness in Egypt was behind the company's decision to avoid risky adventures at home and channel more investment money into projects abroad. Although the company's representatives claimed that their project in Oman was part of a plan to diversify their investment portfolio and enlarge their geographical investment areas, they denied their motherland much-needed financial help to overcome its financial crisis or offer jobs to its unemployed people. It is even more outrageous that the same Egyptian company is announcing that it has allocated $3 billion, in collaboration with the Brazilian Co. I.P.X., to upgrade the infrastructure of a cement factory in Brazil and increase its production to three million tonnes per annum. The Brazilian chairman of this cement factory announced proudly that the new investments would create more jobs in Brazil and reduce cement imports. The company's Egyptian chairman disclosed that the contribution would increase the Egyptian group's presence in the Brazilian company. The Egyptian chairman ignored the fact that his group's expansion in the Brazilian market came at the expense of his motherland and the Egyptian people, who have been denied thousands of jobs. In addition to the universal understanding that investors are cowards, I should add that they are governed by self-interest. We would appreciate Egyptian investments overseas, if the gains had a positive impact on investments and the national economy at home. Therefore, we encourage the transfer of Egyptian investment money to Sudan, Ethiopia or any Nile basin member state to guarantee Egypt's supreme interests in these regions. But we protest when Egyptian companies invest in Brazil or construct mobile networks in Pakistan or anywhere else in the world. Businessmen, who ignore their nation's interests and sufferings, act selfishly and against the nation's interests. That's why I rebuked the lady, who approached me to publish something about the Egyptian company's investments in Brazil. [email protected]
