São Paulo – On the final day of the 22nd Arab-German Business Forum this Thursday (27) in Berlin, a panel was held on Infrastructure and Logistics with an emphasis in Egypt. Transportation minister Kamel Al Wazir (pictured) discussed the Suez Canal and its strategic positioning. He also gave an overview of ongoing sea, land and river projects, such as ports, free zones, and modernization of railways and river transportation. Among other things, Arab participants called for increased investment from Germany.
The adviser on economic affairs to the prime minister of Egypt, Ginah Saleh, said investments in infrastructure help cut costs and get products to points of sale faster, making trade more dynamic and increasing domestic and external competitiveness.
Hoda Mansour, the director for Egypt of multinational technology company SAP, addressed the importance of digitalization to enhancing productivity in logistics and infrastructure. The projects chief at the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, Amir Abdel Ghaffar, also sat in the panel.
Later in the day, a panel featured Arab ambassadors to Germany – the secretary general of the Union of Arab chambers and former minister of Egypt, Khaled Hanafy, the ambassador of Tunisia to Berlin, Ahmad Chafra, and the ambassador of Saudi Arabia to Berlin, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. They spoke on the outlook for economic relations with Germany. Al Saud said investments by German companies in Saudi Arabia are lacking, and that Saudi-German trade currently amounts to USD 11 billion.
Chafra said Germany is Tunisia’s second-biggest trading partner, and that 270-plus enterprises in various industries engage in trade with the North Africa country. He also said that German investments in Tunisia fall short of what they could be and emphasized the importance of technical cooperation in research to Tunisia’s industries. The panelists argued that Arab countries must rethink their approach to attracting international investment, by shifting their focus toward small and medium businesses.
“Germany already has technical cooperation projects and market development partnerships in place with Tunisia and Morocco, and there is an interest in a similar project with Egypt,” said Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce Institutional Relations manager Fernanda Baltazar, who attended the forum alongside ambassador and Chamber International Relations VP Osmar Chohfi. According to Baltazar, authorities also mentioned opportunities for German players to invest in the rebuilding of Syria and Libya, especially in infrastructure.
This Thursday afternoon, Chohfi and Baltazar had a meeting with Sharjah Chamber of Commerce president Abdalla Sultan Al Owais, to discuss the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU). They also met with Ajman Chamber president Abdullah Mohammed Al Muwajai, and with the president (Saeed Bin Nasser Al Talay) and CEO (Abdulla Khamies Al Suwaidi) of the Umm Al Quwain Chamber (Ajman and Umm Al Quwain are two of the UAE’s emirates). They expressed an interest in Brazil, according to Baltazar.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
