The visit of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Cairo on Tuesday has spurred the private sector in the Saudi Arabia to invest more funds in Egypt, especially after the signing of an investment protection agreement between both nations.
This opens the door for Saudi companies to pump in up to $15 billion over the next three years, as revealed by the head of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council, Bandar Al-Amri, in an interview with the Al-Sharq Business website.
Al-Amri declined to disclose the names of the companies that will undertake these billion-dollar projects, as they are in the final stages of negotiations with Egyptian private sector partners.
However, he confirmed that the coming weeks will witness the announcement of these investments, explaining that the most anticipated deals will be in the sectors of energy, industry, real estate development, and tourism.
With the completion of these investments, the total private sector investments from Saudi Arabia to Egypt, the Arab world’s largest consumer market, will jump to $50 billion.
Al-Amri revealed that there are more than 7,000 Saudi companies operating in Egypt with investments exceeding $35 billion.
In addition to private sector investments, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, through its subsidiary in Cairo, plans to invest at least five billion dollars in the coming period, as announced following a visit by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly to Riyadh last month.
“These investments will be in projects with the Egyptian and Saudi private sectors, and with the Egyptian government,” Al-Amri said.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement on Tuesday to encourage and protect mutual investments between the two countries, in addition to forming the Supreme Coordination Council between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The initial announcement of negotiations to finalize this agreement was made in November 2023 during a visit by Saudi Commerce Minister Majid Al-Qasabi to Egypt.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced in September that the deal would soon be finalized, expecting it to enter into force within two or three months, according to the Ashraq Business website.
Al-Amri considered the signing of the agreement, after a long wait, as a turning of a new page in economic relations and the beginning of a new phase that will witness a strengthening of mutual investments.
The Egyptian Prime Minister confirmed during his visit to Riyadh in September that 95 problems related to Saudi investments in Egypt had been identified, and 81 of them had been completely resolved, promising to resolve the remaining 14 problems before the end of this year.
Bander al-Amri noted the activity of Egyptian companies in Saudi Arabia, as their number jumped from 800 companies in 2022 to more than 5,000 companies currently with projects totaling $18 billion.
He also noted that the large Egyptian community in the kingdom and the number of Saudi visitors to Egypt have jumped with the number of flights connecting the two countries to more than 630 flights per week.
