Egypt takes new economic direction: EU official

Egypt is currently taking a new economic direction with very important series of reforms both for the global economy and for investors, Ambassador James Moran, Head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

The remarks of the EU senior diplomat come on the second day of Egypt Economic Development Conference (EEDC), held from March 13 to 15 in the Sharm El-Shiekh resort city of South Sinai.

"Europe is the number one foreign investor here with the biggest trading partner. We have thousands of companies operating here in Egypt and we have hundreds of thousands of each other's peoples living in each other's territories," Moran added, describing the European-Egyptian relations as "very natural and very old."

On Saturday, during the EEDC, Germany's Siemens signed four memos of understanding with Egypt to establish power stations worth 10 billion U.S. dollars and the leading British Petroleum (BP) inked a 9-billion-dollar energy deal with the country.

A popular uprising in 2011 toppled Egypt's long-time ruler Hosni Mubarak, although economic growth rate and national revenues were highest during his time.

The EU ambassador expressed hope that the expected return of Egypt's economic growth would be felt by all Egyptians.

"As growth comes back to the Egyptian economy, as they had it before the revolution, we very much hope that this time it would be possible for it to be spread around the people," Moran said.

About 90 countries, some of them represented by heads of states, 25 organizations and international institutions take part in the Egyptian big event that is meant to provide various investment opportunities for local and foreign investors as part of the new leadership's plan to revive the country's ailing economy due to four years of political turmoil. Endit