AmCham Egypt held a special breakfast meeting on March 25 to bid farewell to Francis J. Ricciardone, United States ambassador to Egypt. Some 240 people, including members of the business community, political officials, civil society, media representatives, and friends and family of the ambassador, gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza to show their gratitude for his support and tireless work in Egypt over the past three years.

Addressing the guests, Ricciardone gave his impressions on the vital US-Egyptian partnership, remarking that – contrary to what some commentators have said – the friendship between the two nations is strong and will only become more intertwined in the future. “Relations between Egypt and the US are a strategic asset to both partners, and those relations are solidly on track,” he said confidently. He added that the US and Egypt share three common objectives: peace, democracy and prosperity.

Ricciardone highlighted the progress that Egypt has made during his tenure here. He affirmed Egypt’s strategic role in promoting regional peace and stability, most notably for a two-state solution between the Palestinians and Israelis. “The Palestinian people have waited a long time for that and deserve it, and the Israelis also have waited a long time to have a peaceful neighbor to live with and to help provide real security,” he said. “Without Egypt, it is hard to imagine how that can come about.”

He also commented that travel and educational exchange between the US and Egypt have increased, which has helped to foster and enforce cultural understanding. He pointed out that non-immigrant US visa demand was up 74 percent compared to 2004, and that 70 percent of Egyptians applying at the embassy in Cairo receive visas. American tourist visits to Egypt increased 85 percent during the same period.

Meanwhile, Egyptian enrollment in US universities is up 10 percent in the last year, with almost 1,700 students in American higher education institutions. The number of student and exchange visas issued to Egyptians has more than doubled since 2004.

The ambassador commended Egypt’s economic progress. Economic growth has reached 7.1 percent, foreign direct investment surged to $11 million from just $400 million in 2002, and the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE) benchmark CASE 30 index has grown 450 percent over the past four years.

US trade and investment has also grown. Private US direct investment has nearly doubled to $6 billion since 2002, with US firms taking high-profile stakes in Commercial International Bank (CIB) and Amoun Pharmaceuticals, among other companies. Bilateral trade, meanwhile, is at an all-time high. “We’ve now increased our bilateral trade to $7.7 billion – that’s a 77-percent increase in three years,” he said. “We remain Egypt’s largest national trading partner by far. We buy 33 percent of everything that Egypt exports to the world – agriculture, manufactured [goods], you name it – we’re your biggest single country customer.”

Ricciardone concluded by stressing his confidence in Egypt’s growth and development and projecting that the US-Egyptian friendship would remain solid in the future. “I see the power of this relationship. I see the emergence of Egypt [and] I see Egypt in a transition toward positive things – not toward danger, not toward crisis, but toward continued accomplishments,” he said.

Francis J. Ricciardone has served as the US ambassador to Egypt since August 2005. He was previously an ambassador to the Philippines and Palau. As a Foreign Service officer, Ricciardone spent a great deal of time in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Italy and Jordan. He served in two joint international military operations, one as a political adviser to the commander of Operation Provide Comfort for northern Iraq, based in Turkey, and the other as chief of the Civilian Observer Unit in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula.