Investment & Trade Committee

• Private sector opportunities for export - November 2001
• Trade structure discussions in Doha - October 2001
• The new economic zones law draft- February 2001

Private sector opportunities for export

Tarek Nabhan, director of firm-level assistance at the Center for Business Support (CBS), and Yehia Eid, commercial counselor and director for African countries at the Commercial Representation Office, Ministry of Economy & Foreign Trade, were guest speakers at a joint committee meeting held on November 12 to discuss "private sector opportunities for export and other services." The presentation focused on assistance services offered to the private sector by the CBS and the Commercial Representation Office to exporting countries that are members of COMESA.

Nabhan emphasized that companies should implement plans for quality control, e-business, HR development and management skills. What the CBS has to offer is credibility, tested business models, proven methodologies and a U.S.-based, worldwide network. Under the program’s auspices, some 2,000 individual technical assistance projects have been completed since 1976, Nabhan said.

In order to implement its projects, CBS divides its services into two sets: individual and group activities. Individual services consist of technical assistance provided by volunteer executives and third-party consultants, along with market research. As for group activities, these include trade-mission management, trade shows, benchmarking trips and seminars.

After Nabhan had finished, Eid talked about COMESA’s objectives, which include promotion of research and technical assistance for development, cooperation in creating an environment for foreign investment, and general economic development. COMESA’s trade figures show that commerce between African countries is increasing and customs tariffs are decreasing, already reaching zero in some cases.

Top

Trade structure discussions in Doha

The Investment & Trade Committee held a discussion on October 17 with Lynne Lambert, director of the office of UN Specialized & Technical Agencies, and Irving Williamson, former deputy general council for the U.S. Trade Representative Office, as panelists. The moderator was J. W. Wright, Jr., trade adviser, USAID.

The panel discussion, which addressed "trade structures and the evolving dialogue over Doha," focused on the upcoming WTO ministerial meeting in Doha, which was expected to provide an opportunity to raise awareness of the benefits Egypt had gained from trade liberalization and increased global trade. The panelists stressed to American and Egyptian firms that joint ventures would help Egypt’s competitiveness in expanding its share of trade and investment.

In the question and answer session, participants dealt with challenges in the implementation of WTO agreements in developing countries. A lack of awareness of the possible benefits is a major obstacle, but participants recognized that trade liberalization ultimately favors strong countries which are home to major international corporations.

Top

The new economic zones law draft- February 2001

Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, senior adviser to the minister of economy & foreign trade as well as Central Bank of Egypt board member; Mr. Lotfi Mazhar, executive director of the Federation of Industries and former chairman of Exxon Middle East; and Dr. Ziad Bahaa El Din, managing director of Arab Company for Arts & Publishing (Fenoun) and professor at Cairo University Law Faculty spoke at the Investment & Trade Committee meeting to discuss "The new economic zones law draft."

The meeting, held on February 20, featured Dr. Bahaa El Din speaking about the law’s legal concepts and how it assumes the need to attract investment not by giving incentives and tax benefits but, rather through a comprehensive investment environment.

This new approach will be evident through a new tax scheme, customs regulations, labor law, environmental standards, licensing, and import/export regulations in which private sector companies will be hired to implement public laws and regulations.

However, he pointed out that there are some criticisms of the new approach. These concern the creation of two tax schemes in one country and making arbitration a compulsory act.

Mr. Lotfi Mazhar, who gave a business perspective of the law, focused on the law’s incentives for investors and its long-term targets like infrastructure facilities, global marketing of Egypt and the zone as an good location for technology investment and an attractive fiscal environment, and customs services.

Mazhar said that the six industrial sectors that could develop and expand under the mentioned law were food processing, textiles, heavy and light chemicals, construction and engineering.

"The expected contribution of these industries will be equal to $3.5 billion worth of output and 124,000 job opportunities," Mazhar said.

Top