As per reports, Saudi Arabia is now planning to sign business agreements with Egypt to boost the North African country’s participation in the Kingdom’s industrial and mining sectors in line with ‘Vision 2030’.
During his visit to Egypt, Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Alkhorayef expressed the Kingdom’s keenness to facilitate Egyptian investors.
It is part of the Kingdom’s efforts to bolster the role of the mining and industrial sectors in the national economy and increase their contribution by attracting foreign investment.
According to Bandar Alkhorayef, the first of the two agreements seeks to “preserve commercial activity between the two countries and reduce obstacles, as well as finance exports through the Saudi Export Bank.”
The other pact would form a partnership with Egyptian companies specialized in targeted activities in the Kingdom.
The minister conducted an official tour to the North African country to discuss bilateral relations and explore opportunities to enhance cooperation in the industry and mining sectors, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Bandar Alkhorayef was accompanied by Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Osama Al-Zamil. He also met with government officials and investors in the industrial and mining sectors from both countries, apart from visiting several factories.
“There are many opportunities that we see when it comes to the collaboration between us and our brothers in Egypt that will help accelerate the projects that are being built in those sectors,” the minister commented.
In 2022, the volume of Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports to Egypt exceeded SR11 billion (USD 2.9 billion), while imports totalled SR10 billion.
The Kingdom’s exports to Egypt included petrochemicals, building materials, and medicines, while imports comprised food products, heavy machinery and electronics.
Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmed Samir recently said that trade exchange between countries surged 23.9% in 2022 to reach USD 5.6 billion.
He also noted that the year ended with USD 6 billion worth of Saudi investments in Egypt and USD 1.6 billion of Egyptian investments in the Kingdom.
“The trade between both countries is witnessing growth, but the aspirations of the leadership are much bigger,” Bandar Alkhorayef concluded.
The news comes amid Egypt’s non-oil economic headwinds showing promises of dissipating, with companies seeing their input costs softening, with the stabilisation of the Egyptian pound cooling import markets.
The country’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) report for May 2023 said that the North African nation saw the slowest downturn in business conditions in 15 months.
The headline index was 47.8, its highest level since February 2022, still below the 50.0 threshold signalling overall growth, but an increase from April’s 47.3, the report said.
The country is making progress towards a stable demand environment, which led to a slower, but still solid contraction in activity levels, as per the report.
While higher prices continued to dent sales, output and purchasing, businesses signalled that inflationary pressures were much softer than the highs seen at the turn of 2023, stated a report of S&P Global Market Intelligence.