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India, Egypt unveil economic agenda

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: India and Egypt are on course to rebuild their ties by adding solid economic content to their relationship.

The visiting Minister of state for commerce and power Jairam Ramesh held talks with Prime Minister of Egypt Ahmed Mahmoud Mohamed Nazif. He also met the Ministers of investment, communications and information technology, finance, transport as well as trade and industry. These meetings took place on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (Middle East) where Mr. Ramesh is representing India as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special envoy.

“The focus of discussions was mainly on investments, which we wish to raise from $700 million to $4 billion,” Mr. Ramesh said. He pointed out that the target, which would position India as the third largest investor in Egypt, was achievable if four key projects, which were in the pipeline, materialised.

Mr. Ramesh’s visit is part of India’s recent initiative to step up ties with West Asia, by focusing on the oil-rich Gulf, along with regional heavyweights — Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Indian officials were optimistic that the economic relationship with Egypt could acquire rapid momentum, as both countries appear politically inclined to re-engage each other.

“There have been three visits by senior Egyptian ministers to India in April alone. The sentiment to reach out to India especially in the economic arena is now evident,” India’s ambassador to Egypt A. Gopinathan said. Hoping to take advantage of its geographic location, India is also looking at investing in Egypt’s free zones, in order to avail duty-free access to neighbouring markets in Africa, Europe and the rest of West Asia.

Egypt is seeking a partnership with India to emerge as an Information Technology hub for the three market zones in its neighbourhood. Analysts say this was achievable, because of Egypt’s well-educated work-force and familiarity of a large section of its people

with European languages. The Tata Consultancy Services is holding negotiations with the Egyptian authorities to develop a software development and training centre. Satyam Computers inaugurated a Global Solutions Centre at Smart Village near Cairo in March this year to cater to the Middle East and North Africa market and Europe.

Oil and gas has emerged as a major area of collaboration. Reliance Industries has been negotiating an investment of $4 billion for a petrochemicals plant and the world’s largest plastics unit in Egypt.

During his talks, Mr. Ramesh pointed out that the Egyptian government’s intervention might be required to ensure adequate supply of gas as feedstock that would enable Indian companies to set up refineries, LNG terminals and petro-chemical complexes in Egypt.

He also discussed the proposed $350 million joint venture investment by the Indian Farmers’ Fertiliser Cooperative Limited and Egypt’s El-Nasr Mining Company for establishing a phosphoric acid plant near Aswan. The project is awaiting its final clearance from Egypt’s General Authority of Industrial Development.

India’s participation in Egypt’s proposed cross-border railway network has emerged as another area of interest. Mr. Ramesh discussed India’s participation in the extension of rail lines from Egypt to Libya and Sudan. Egypt is also considering installation of a collision avoidance system, which has been successfully installed by the Konkan Railway.

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