ALEXANDRIA - “Turkey and Egypt will soon conclude a historic maritime agreement to facilitate transportation between Euroasia and Africa via Egypt. When signed, the new RoRo Agreement will constitute a strategic bridge between continents across Egypt," said Turkish Ambassador Huseyin Avni Botsali. "Turkey has every intention of continuing with and diversifying its partnership with Egypt in the form of direct investments and joint ventures," he added. Despite the difficulties the Egyptian economy is suffering, Turkish investors maintained production throughout 2011 and bilateral trade with Turkey actually increased by around 25 per cent last year, bringing the total trade volume to $4.2 billion. The Turkish Ambassador comments came when he met recently with Governor of Alexandria Osama el-Fouli; President of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce and the Alexandrian Chamber Ahmed el-Wakil; the Turkish Consul, General Semih Lutfu Turgut; Turkish commercial counsellors; and Turkish investors from Alexandria, Cairo and Damietta. They held a friendly discussion about the problems and difficulties facing Turkish businesses in Egypt and the prospects for attracting new investments here from Turkey. Alexandria Governorate and Chamber executives pledged to create a "special response mechanism" to promptly and effectively tackle problems and complaints. Turkish businesses in Egypt have recently been encountering a number of problems, such as bureaucratic hurdles and thefts, with some of these businesses having to go slow or even temporarily suspend their operations. Currently Turkish businesses in Egypt provide more than 50.000 jobs to Egyptian economy. And the climate of business improved significantly during the last five years with the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement since 2007.
