MP Al-Saloum's speech at the Economic Conference in Cairo

Speech of His Excellency Representative / Ahmed Sabah Al-Saloum

Chairman of the Arab Union for Trade Facilitation

His Excellency the Prime Minister of Egypt, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly

His Excellency Dr. Tarek El Molla, the Minister of Petroleum

His Excellency Dr. Mohamed Maait, the Minister of Finance

His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Samir Saleh, the Minister of Trade and Industry

His Excellencies the Ministers in attendance

His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Galal, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Akhbar El Youm and Chairman of the Conference

His Excellency Mr. Khaled Miri, Editor-in-Chief of Akhbar

Your Excellencies the Ambassadors .. Gentlemen, Distinguished Attendees

May the peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you.. and my sincere greetings to all of you.

I would like to take this good opportunity and the honorable gathering to greet the organizers of this conference and the distinguished "Akhbar Al-Youm" institution and its usual interest in the Egyptian and Arab economic affairs. I am pleased to introduce the "Arab Union for Trade Facilitation and Risk Management", which I have the honor to chair. It is the newest of the Arab unions that has been licensed to operate under the umbrella of the Arab Economic Unity Council. Preparations are currently underway to launch its work through a major regional conference that will discuss the most important issues for which it was established, most notably facilitating the movement of inter-trade, customs procedures, unifying specifications and standards for various goods, and eliminating monopoly and black market practices.

In a hurry, I can summarize for the honorable attendees the work of the Union in 3 main axes:

The first axis: Facilitating and supporting legitimate trade outlets and combating various forms of illicit trade, through developing and coordinating the areas of work of the Union members, and cooperating with the relevant authorities to address the technical and commercial problems and risks arising from legitimate and illicit trade.

The second axis: It is based on cooperation, coordination and building strategic partnerships with the public and private sectors to increase the level of security and facilitate trade operations, in a way that enhances the safety of trade, overcomes customs and non-customs restrictions and controls illicit practices in trade.

The third axis: Developing training programs and holding seminars and conferences on frameworks and standards for trade security and facilitation, as well as cooperating with official bodies in supporting programs that would reduce harmful practices on trade, for example, but not limited to: smuggling, tax evasion, and breaching competition conditions, as they are all issues that threaten the growth of national economies.

Dear attendees

From my position here at this distinguished conference that mainly discusses economic and investment issues in Egypt under the main title "Industry and Investment... Start, Go" I can confirm that Egypt, the land of Egypt and the heart of Arabism, is the jewel in the crown, and all of us as Arabs are extremely happy with every progress or success that Egypt achieves on all levels and sectors... and the economic one in particular, because Egypt's success is a success for the Arabs and Egypt's progress is progress for the entire nation... and the prosperity and security of the Egyptian people is a guarantee for the entire Arab national security.

From this standpoint and from the core of the Arab Union for Trade Facilitation’s specialization and its primary tasks in raising inter-Arab trade exchange, I can say that there are promising opportunities for mutual investment in many sectors between Egypt and all Arab countries, but due to my bias towards the small and medium enterprises sector, I see that there is great interest worldwide in this sector, which holds broad prospects for growth and development for small companies in several sectors such as light and manufacturing industries, the restaurant and cafe sector, the entertainment and tourism industry, technology, the pharmaceutical sector, the petrochemical industry, and others. I know very well the extent of the interest that Egypt, under the leadership of His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, gives to small companies, and the interest in the Gulf countries and a number of Arab countries is also to the same extent because the wise leadership in our country is fully aware of the importance of this sector and its vital role in developing the economy, especially industrial and technology companies. But my sincere advice .. from the heart .. to my family and brothers in Egypt, if we really want to move forward seriously, there must be clarity and stability at the legal and legislative level with regard to investment, and I believe that most of the attendees from investors and industrialists and traders know very well that the investor is anxious by nature and fears radical changes and fluctuations in decisions that affect his investment accounts.

And the investor in our current world has become a desirable commodity that everyone competes for, an important source of money that is directly pumped into the country's economy and revives it, and everyone is looking for him and competing for him, the investor means factories, companies, job opportunities, opening homes for workers and improving the standard of living of citizens, the investor is the "gold medal" that everyone is racing to seize.

Secondly, as a businessman and a member of the Board of Directors of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce, we must all strive, each according to his position, to remove any negative image of "routine", especially in terms of dealing with employees in the government apparatus, which is a problem not only in Egypt but in many Arab countries. Routine is an "epidemic" that destroys everything and eliminates ambition and creative ideas, and we are in dire need of creative thinking to start and take off.

Thirdly, and I see this matter as extremely important, that we talk frankly about the problems and obstacles with each other so that we can find solutions and actually move in the right direction. I believe that there are many delegations visiting Arab countries on the economic level, and we hope to see a real translation on the ground of these meetings, to see productive Arab projects and to see Arab goods in every store and in all our Arab and foreign markets as well.

From the bottom of my heart, I hope that any ambiguity regarding the difficulty of investing in Egypt will be removed and that the Egyptian currency will stabilize in a way that allows investments to flow without worry. I know very well that important steps have been taken in Egypt recently and there is a clear correction of the path and great interest from the wise leadership in Cairo. There are also opportunities in various economic sectors such as industry, tourism, real estate, and others. I also realize that the "Egyptian Stock Exchange" has great opportunities for investment, but all parties must speak transparently and clearly to remove any obstacles, find solutions, and attract investments to the Arab world in general, which is at the heart of Arab national security. Finally, I extend my sincere greetings to all of you and to the organizers of the conference my sincere thanks and appreciation for this generous invitation. I hope that you all will benefit as much as possible from this gathering and these discussions... and for Egypt and all Arab countries all security, stability, goodness, and prosperity.

...and peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you