'India, Egypt should find ways to enhance trade ties'

India has invited Egyptian businesses to invest in the country saying the two sides enjoying very strong political and cultural ties should now work out ways to enhance two-way investments and trade.
"India and Egypt have been very strong and old partners in politics and culture. Today it is the world of economics and so I believe that it is very necessary for us to work more closely in the economic field to increase investments in both ways," said India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya on the sidelines of an economic seminar entitled "Make in India" organised here yesterday as part of the two-week cultural festival "India by the Nile".

The seminar construes the flagship programme 'Make in India' which aims to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub of innovative, low cost, eco friendly and zero defect products and to develop synergies with Egyptian industry.
"Today we receive the largest amount of investments anywhere in the world and that's because of the systems that had been created," he added.
India launched the Make in India programme in 2014, which quickly became a rallying cry for India's innumerable stakeholders and partners.
It was a powerful, galvanising call to action the entrepreneurs and business leaders, and an invitation to potential partners and investors around the world.

Most importantly, it represents a complete change of the Indian Government's mindset - a shift from issuing authority to business partner, in keeping with the tenet of 'Red Tapism to Red Carpet'.

"For business the most important thing is that people must make profit. But I define profit in a broader sets. So, profit is making money and making relationships. I believe that India and Egypt as two very ancient civilizations are ideally placed to make this broader concept of profit realizable because when you invest money you must get your return of course but you have much more to do when it is between two great countries like India and Egypt," Bhattacharyya said.

"Our investments in Egypt have been from that perspective, which is why our investments are all long term investments," Bhattacharyya added.
"We are trying to bring about structure reforms in the manner in which licensing is done and in many cases there is no need for license. We have a very large pool of skilled people, engineers and doctors, people skilled in management who can operates the investments that are coming," he added.
India-Egypt trade and investment made a significant headway in the last few years, despite the weakening of the global economy and declining trade. The bilateral trade grew 60 per cent over the last five years touching almost USD 5 billion.

India is Egypt's third largest destination of exports. Over 50 Indian companies are investing in Egypt with USD 3 billion and providing employment to 35,000 Egyptians.