Addressing a business summit organized jointly by three apex Indian industry bodies – FICCI, Assocham and CII – here on Wednesday, the visiting Egyptian President Dr Mohamed Morsi said : “Egypt commends the Indian proposal that BRICS Association countries establish a multilateral block funded by the five member states for funding development projects in developing countries and extending long-term loans during global crises, such as the Euro crisis.”

He expressed Egypt’s eagerness to join BRICS so that it becomes E-BRICS. The BRICS is a group of emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

“Egypt seeks to promote cooperation with all blocs among the emerging countries and closely follows the activities of BRICS Association of which India is a member along with China, Brazil, Russia and South Africa,” he said

Egypt and other African countries have been invited by the host country, South Africa to attend the BRICS Summit as observers. The Summit is slated to deliberate on development needs of Africa.

Egypt has proposed doubling the volume of its bilateral trade with India in the next few years

Visa regime will soon be relaxed for Indian tourists.

It has invited Indian investments in chemicals, petro-chemicals, automobiles, agriculture and farm technology, broadband connectivity, cloud computing and sought cooperation space science, biotechnology, nano-technology, renewable energy, oil and gas exploration, food security and setting up of refineries.

Speaking after the launch of the India-Egypt Business Council, the visiting Egyptian President Dr Mohamed Morsi said : “the surge of (India-Egypt bilateral) trade exchange volume that reached $5.4 billion during the fiscal year ending in Mar. 2012, which stimulates us setting more ambitious objectives up to doubling that volume in the coming years, and to negotiate an updated frame for enhancing economic cooperation.”

With a view to allure Indian investment, he said : “The Government endeavors to improve the infrastructure, to smooth over the obstacles to foreign investments and provide necessary support in that regard, and to provide appropriate mechanisms to resolve investment disputes. We believe that great potentials for cooperation with our partners in the countries of the South, especially India, do exist due to its huge industrial capabilities and resounding success story in the development of SMEs and technology and software industries.”

At present the total investment made by 50 Indian companies hovers around $2.5 billion. There is a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Treaty signed between the two countries.

He suggested technical and scientific cooperation in ICT, space science, biotechnology, nano-technology, renewable energy, oil and gas exploration, setting up of refineries, food security and urged for investment in farm mechanization.

“We look forward to include the fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology when India took considerable strides in the field of cotton biotechnology, which is an area of interest for both countries and can be one of cooperation fields,” said President Morsi.

He commended “India’s proposal for setting up of the BRICS Bank” for extending long-term loans in times of global crisis.

“Other economic and trade areas, such as business services, transport, industry, tourism, finance, banking services, and capital markets are still offering significant investment opportunities for both sides. There is also a proposal to establish a free economic zone for the Indian side and to invite the Indian companies to set up their industrial bases in Egypt, promote their products whether in the Egyptian domestic market or the neighboring markets and to take advantage of the commercial arrangements and frames Egypt has with those large markets,” President Morsi said.

The Egyptian Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Hatem Saleh informed that in March 10 the joint business group of the two countries met in Cairo and set the target for achieving $8 billion in bilateral trade within three years. He invited Indian companies to invest in chemicals, petro-chemicals, automobiles and ICT sectors.
Egyptian Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou informed that visa regime for Indian tourists will be relaxed as the country was aiming at 30 million tourist arrival by 2022.

The Egyptian Minister of Communication and Information Technology, Atef Helmy said : “India is our role model for success. Whatever we agreed to we will implement it in few months.”

He said that Egypt would set up broadband connectivity by taking advantage of 18 submarine cables of total length of 160,000 km running close to Egyptian coast. The estimated investment for the project is $7 billion for which foreign investment is required. He also urged for Indian investment in cloud computing.

TCI Sanmar Chemicals signed a MoU with Port Said to set up a plastic park. Kriloskar Brothers signed a MoU for enhancement of engineers and technicians at mechanical and electrical division of the Egyptian Irrigation Ministry.The National Small Industries Corporation (of India) signed a MoU with Industrial Development Authority, Cairo for upgrading a vocational training centre at Shoubra El Kheima, Cairo. The Small Industries Development Bank of India signed a MoU with Social Fund for Development, Egypt and the World Bank for partnering for enhancement of financial and non-financial services for micro, small and medium enterprises. Kapsi Coatings India signed a MoU with Mott Macdonald for providing engineering, consultancy and related services.