India, Egypt to push trade to $12 billion in next five years

The volume of trade between the two countries amounts to around $7 billion currently.

Indian foreign direct investment (FDI) in Egypt is around $4 billion. In the past six months alone, Indian companies have invested around $170 million in the African Arab country. Egypt is hoping that India increases its presence in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

During Saturday’s meeting, Modi had mentioned that India is an important source of foreign investments to Egypt, and that the two countries have been increasing cooperation in the field of renewable energy, which reflects their joint commitment to protect environment.

Egypt is an important partner to India, Modi had stressed, affirming that cooperation between the two countries have increased despite Covid and global tensions.

In the meeting, Madbouli said Egypt looks forward to consolidating the strategic relations with India with regard to exchanging strategic goods, especially with regard to making India into one of the main sources of wheat exports to Egypt. Modi returned to India in the early hours of Monday.India’s top exported items to Egypt during April-December 2022 were meat (13.5%), ferro-alloys (5.2%), rice (2.6%) and flat rolled products of iron (2.2%). India’s top imported items from Egypt during the same period were petroleum oil (39%), petroleum gas (19.3 %), chemical fertilizers (12.1%), ammonia (6.6%) and phosphoric acid (4.7%), according to a factsheet of the Indian Embassy in Cairo.Over 450 Indian companies are registered in Egypt, of which around 50 are active in various sectors. Major Indian investments in Egypt include TCI Sanmar (with a value of $1.5 billion), Alexandria Carbon Black, Kirloskar, Dabur India, Flex P Films, SCIB Paints, Godrej, Mahindra, and Monginis. Indian companies are present in a range of sectors including apparel, agriculture, chemicals, energy, automobiles, and retail.