by Mahmoud Fouly
CAIRO, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing five-day visit of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz to Egypt represents Riyadh's political and economic support for Cairo to overcome current challenges, said Egyptian experts.
The visit saw the signing of agreements of Saudi investments in Egypt worth about 25 billion U.S. dollars, according to a statement from Egyptian International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr on Sunday.
The visit comes at a time when Egypt is suffering political and economic pressures due to years of domestic political turmoil that led to economic recession and security challenges resulting from regional chaos.
"The Saudi investments show awareness that investment in Egypt is investment in the future, because politically Egypt represents a political weight and strategic depth for the Gulf region, and economically investments in Egypt are promising and fruitful," said Amr Saleh, professor of political economy at Cairo-based Ain Shams University and former World Bank project officer.
Saudi investment in Egypt is nothing new, as Saudi business tycoons have been investing in the country over the past few decades, the expert told Xinhua.
"But today, it is the Saudi government that pumps investments into Egypt, which is a new and positive aspect and an indicator of the soundness and healthiness of the investment environment in Egypt," Saleh explained.
Over the past five years, Egypt's foreign currency reserves declined from 36 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 to 16.5 billion dollars as of end of March 2016, and the government is currently struggling to reduce an ongoing budget deficit of about 36 billion dollars.
"After the 2011 turmoil, the economic growth was as low as 1.5 percent and it gradually increased until it reached 4.5 percent in the current fiscal year and is expected to reach 5.5 percent in the coming fiscal year as the government stated, which shows that Egypt is on the rise economically," the political economy professor illustrated.
Among the agreements signed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia during the visit are those related to housing projects in the Egyptian Sinai peninsula, the establishment of King Salman University in Tur town of South Sinai, the development of Egypt's largest public hospital Qasr al-Aini, the building of a power station in western Cairo and the formation of a joint investment fund with a capital of 60 billion Saudi riyals (about 16 billion dollars).
"All these agreements show the seriousness of the Saudi side to support the
Egyptian economy, as there will be capital flow to Egypt which means there will
be more employment and economic movement in the country in the near future,"
said Alia al-Mahdi, professor of economics at Cairo University and former dean
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