Sisi's Asian tour economic hope for Egypt: experts

CAIRO - The ongoing Asian tour of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi that includes India and China represents hope for the most populous Arab country while struggling to revive its ailing economy after several years of political instability, said Egyptian economic and political experts.

Sisi attended Thursday evening in New Delhi the Egyptian-Indian businessmen forum where he voiced Egypt's persistence to address all obstacles and resolve all issues that face the Indian investments in the country.

The Egyptian president will later head to China's eastern city of Hangzhou to attend the Group of 20 (G20) summit scheduled for Sept. 4-5 as a guest of honor at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Heading east

Egypt has been heading east towards Asia over the past few years for further cooperation seen by experts as a means to create a kind of balance in the country's economic, political and strategic relations so as not to be restricted to the United States and the West in general.

"Heading to Asia is a new world tendency for the region started to reach very high economic levels, as China has become the world's second largest economy after the United States," said Egyptian economic expert and researcher Mokhtar al-Sherif.

Sherif added that Egypt's relations with India and China are on the rise and the country is trying to learn from their development experiences that led them to rank high as giant Asian and world economies.

President Sisi met Thursday with Indian Foreign Minister Sushama Swaraj in New Delhi where he stressed the necessity for restoring strong ties between the two countries, expressing hope for Indian participation in the ongoing Egyptian national projects.

"Egypt seeks to learn from India's development experience, despite the prevailing poverty in the Asian country, as India has achieved a technological and industrial leap especially in technology and electronic based industries including remote sensing devices, computers, missiles, satellites and others," Sherif told Xinhua.

President Sisi has visited China twice since he came to office in mid-2014 and was invited to the G20 summit during Chinese President Xi's first state visit to Egypt in January. The two leaders agreed to elevate the bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership in December 2014.

"India and China has economic forums with Africa as a promising spot for economic future due to its abundant natural resources, and Egypt's distinguished location as a portal to Africa can make it a link between big Asian economies and the continent," the expert pointed out.

G20 chances

The Egyptian president said his invitation to the G20 summit embodies the depth of friendship and partnership ties between Egypt and China, expressing confidence in China's successful leadership of the world event.

"Egyptian-Chinese relations grow stronger day after day and extend to include various fields of cooperation at all levels, given the technological and finance capabilities of China and the promising investment and business opportunities provided by Egypt," Sisi told Xinhua in an interview Wednesday before setting off for his Asian tour.

Ahmed Qandil, expert of Asian affairs and head of the Energy Studies Program at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said that Egypt's participation in such a world economic event whose members represent 90 percent of the world population and 85 percent of the world trade volume is "a certificate that Egypt is on the right economic path."

This year's G20 summit is held under the theme of "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy," and it is expected to redraw the map of world economy that has been facing decline over the past few years through balanced, inclusive economic development-based policies that benefit big and small economies alike.

"Egypt supports China's efforts to reach better representation of developing countries in the G20 summit that will be a chance for Egypt to present its large national projects and their development aspirations amid declining world economic growth rate," Qandil told Xinhua.

Egypt has been struggling to survive economic recession over the past few years, which saw the ouster of two heads of state in 2011 and 2013, due to security issues that caused a growing budget deficit, declining foreign currency reserves, ailing tourism and fleeing foreign investments.

The challenges led the Arab country to seek a $12 billion loan recently from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to implement a tough, three-year economic reform program.

"The initial approval of the IMF loan to Egypt and the country's first participation in the G20 summit show an international recognition that the Egyptian leadership in on the right path," the expert argued.

Qandil believes that Egypt's weight in the region qualifies it to play a key role in regional security and stability and that its cooperation with the international community, including Asian and Western states, will be in favor of international and regional stability.

Hope, challenges

Amid economic challenges, Egypt aims out of Sisi's Asian tour and participation in the G20 summit to enhance economic relations with world powerful economies and return home with a bunch of foreign investments to boost the country's economy.

"This depends on the improvement of investment environment in Egypt that still suffers bureaucracy," said Ehab al-Desouki, head of the Economy Department of Cairo-based Sadat Academy.

Desouki argued that establishing a business in Egypt requires a foreign investor to spend a lot of time to get official permits and a specified land for the project, "which are the main obstacles facing investors in Egypt, besides the new crisis of dollar shortage that cripples importers."

"Egypt should overcome the obstacles facing investors and present its investment opportunities and economic reform program agreed with the IMF to get the best results out of the Asian tour and the G20 summit," the expert told Xinhua.

For his part, economic expert Sherif said that Egypt should work hard and fast to establish technology-based cadres and raise its scientific level in order to learn from pioneering development experiences like those of China, India and some other Asian states.

"Egypt is a promising investment market and its presence in giant economic blocs like this year's G20 summit requires the country to conduct thorough and accurate studies to be qualified for copying successful economic experiences," the expert told Xinhua.