Egypt anticipates gains from expanding economic ties with Iraq
Egypt, Iraq and Jordan are working to establish an alliance to boost cooperation in various economic fields.
Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan are taking new steps toward forming a strategic partnership, which Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi described as the “New Levant” alliance, based primarily on the economic and investment dimensions, and political and security aspects. The three countries held a summit June 27 in Baghdad to move forward with the New Levant project as per the political, security, economic, cultural, educational and investment agreements and understandings.
Energy and electrical interconnection projects top the list of economic interests between the three countries, while Baghdad and Cairo support the Jordanian role in the region to fight terrorism.
Ahmed Zaki, director of the Department of the Arab Mashreq, Islamic Organizations and Gulf Cooperation in the Egyptian Commercial Service, told Al-Monitor, “The value of Iraqi investments in Egypt is about $490 million, carried out by about 3,329 Iraqi companies, with capitals exceeding $724 million. Iraq comes in 25th place among the countries investing in Egypt, with 25% of Iraqi companies investing in the industrial sector, 24% in the agricultural sector, 22% in the service sector and 20% in tourism.”
Zaki said the trade balance between Egypt and Iraq is in Cairo's favor, with a value of $116.231 million during the first quarter of this year.
