An Interview with Mr. Mohsen Salah, Chairman of the Arab Contractors Company
Is development in Egypt on the right track?
The development process aims to increase investment opportunities and we are working on many development projects. These projects serve the country, whether it is for an Egyptian or foreign company, and our main objective is to establish new development projects that serve investment interests in Egypt.
It is very important that foreign investors find the provision of power and infrastructure is adequate for their investments and Egypt is making sure this is the case.
How would you describe the relationship between Egypt and Japan?
I am a member in the Egypt-Japan Business Council (JEBC) and we regularly discuss investments from Japan as we work closely with Japanese companies and JICA.
Egypt and Japan share a strong bilateral relationship. We are working to increase investments in Egypt and we have established cooperation between the Arab Contractors Company and Hitachi of Japan at one of the desalination plants. We have a comprehensive knowledge of the Japanese market as well as Japanese products which are available in Egypt. We also had a previous partnership with a Japanese company during the construction of the El Salam Bridge over the Suez Canal. There is a history of Egyptian-Japanese cooperation in various sectors, past and present, and we will increase our collaboration sin the future.
What is your vision for the future?
We aim to be one of the leading countries regarding foreign investment and we are receiving many offers from foreign companies and investors.
There are great business opportunities in the ‘Suez Canal Development Axis’ and we hope Japan will be one of the countries to play an important role by investing in these projects in addition to the Chinese and Russian investors. We are seeing utilities and infrastructure demand create investment and business opportunities and we are discussing these issues within the Egypt-Japan Business Council.
What message would you like to share with our readers in Japan and around the world?
Egypt is a must-see country for visitors to the region. We invite our Japanese friends to visit the Egyptian coasts, beaches and historical sites. We look forward to sharing our country’s continued development.
Economically, we are establishing industrial areas at the Suez Canal Development Axis to aggregate and re-export products and services including cars, manufactured goods, food and industrial products. Egypt is in a unique strategic location and with the Suez Canal, we will continue to be a world-class center for trade and industry.
