Egypt to See $1bn in Italian Investments

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's visit to Italy has borne fruit, with Rome agreeing to invest a total of 800 million euros ($1.04 billion) in Egypt, the state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Saturday. The report gave few details of how the sum will be invested. Morsi met with his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano on Friday and made a joint declaration to boost bilateral relations and promote economic cooperation and trade between the two countries.

The Egyptian president also met on Thursday with leading Italian businessmen including Giorgio Squinzi, the president of business association Confindustria, as well as chief excutives from ENI, ENEL and FS railways, according to local news agency ANSA. In May, the Egyptian government signed an agreement with Italy to swap a third tranche of the North African country's debts worth $100 million for Italian investments in Egypt.

Morsi has been on the hunt for foreign investment over the last few weeks. During a presidential visit to China in late August, Asia's largest economy agreed to give Egypt 450 million yuan (LE430 million) to finance infrastructure, electricity and environment projects, as well as donating 300 police cars. The chairman of Egypt's National Bank, Tareq Amer, and his Chinese counterpart also signed a deal for a $200 million concessional loan to support small and medium size projects in Egypt.