The “Italian-Egyptian Business Forum”, organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Development. The aim of the event was to present to Italian companies the new investment opportunities in the North African country, thanks to the presence of a qualified panel which illustrated the projects and sectors for which Egypt offers the most interesting business prospects, the new policies and the incentives available to companies interested in investing in the Egyptian market.
Egypt has significant factors of attraction towards Italian entrepreneurship, such as geographical proximity, complementarity of the respective production systems (development of small and medium-sized Egyptian industry on the Italian model), close cultural and economic ties, in addition to the low cost of raw materials and labor, however of moderate qualification. Also interesting are the concessions for foreign investment, thanks to the establishment by the Authorities of numerous Free Zones, Industrial Zones, Special Economic Zones and Qualified Industrial Zones created to give investors greater incentives, guarantees and exemptions. Another non-negligible element for Italy is represented by energy prices, which in Egypt are still very competitive and make investment advantageous in particular (but not only) in sectors with high energy consumption.
In 2012, Italy was among Egypt's top economic partners, the first ever among EU countries. In the same year Italian exports to Egypt saw an increase of +10,4% compared to 2011, for a total value of over 2,8 billion euros. THE sectors of greatest interest to Italian companies are industrial machinery, followed by furniture, chemical, metallurgical, rubber and plastic products. The most promising investment areas on the other hand, they concern the textile, agri-food, pharmaceutical and ICT construction sectors.
