• EGYPT
  • July 12, 2012
  • 3 minutes read

Egyptian President to Businessmen: We Will Fully Support Investment

Egyptian President to Businessmen: We Will Fully Support Investment

President Mohamed Morsi assured strong support for business and the private sector and active encouragement of local, Arab and international investment in all areas, so as to contribute to the recovery of the Egyptian economy and to provide new job opportunities for young people. He also stressed his commitment to removing all obstacles that stand in the way of investment and implementation of projects.

This came during a meeting between President Morsi, on Wednesday at the presidential headquarters in Heliopolis, with 80 businessmen and businesswomen representing various production and service investment activities. The meeting was attended by heads of business associations and federations of chambers of commerce.

After the meeting, Saad Eddin Allam, Chairman of Paradise Capital, affirmed that the president has sent several messages to assure and support businesses during the coming period, while underscoring the need to generate more employment opportunities for citizens through projects they set up, and to encourage upgrading and training of Egyptian labor to help the workforce adapt to new requirements for the job market, and also underlining the importance of product development to find a niche in foreign markets.

For his part, Egyptian Travel Agents Association Chairman Essam Al-Shaer said, "The President affirmed his interest in the tourism industry, and heard a request to activate the Supreme Council for Tourism to be under his supervision".

He further added that Dr. Morsi promised to visit the Red Sea resort city Hurghada shortly, and to meet with workers of the tourism sector there.

Businessman Dr. Mohamed Murad pointed that Dr. Morsi asked the private sector to expand work possibilities for Egyptians; where the number of workers in this sector are more than 19 million workers, with the private sector contributing about 70 per cent of investment in Egypt.

Dr. Murad mentioned that the President emphasized that the State’s interest in employment is greater than its interest in tax collection from companies.

He also said that Dr. Morsi agreed to the formation of a committee that should comprise 15 businessmen, to serve as a link between him and the private sector, with regular meetings between the President and the committee to listen to businessmen’s demands.

Meanwhile, businessman Mansour Amer said that the President was keen to meet with businessmen from across the entire sector, even those associated with the defunct National Party, because he seeks to build Egypt and turn a new page, so long as those businessmen did not break the law.

Amer added that businessmen demanded the formation of a homogeneous and powerful new government that can take bold decisions to promote economic activity.

He denied that there is an intention for a new marriage between wealth and power or that the next government is to be a government of businessmen.