Egypt and Germany Agree on Concrete Steps to Enhance Cooperation in Trade, Investment, Industry, and Energy
Engineer Hassan El-Khatib, Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, and Mr. Stefan Rouenhoff, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of the Federal Republic of Germany, signed the minutes of the seventh meeting of the Egyptian–German Joint Economic Committee, which aims to advance economic, trade, and industrial cooperation between the two countries.
The signing took place following the convening of the Joint Committee meeting, which was attended on the Egyptian side by Eng. Mohamed El-Goski, Chief Executive Officer of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI); Dr. Abdelaziz El-Sherif, Head of the Egyptian Commercial Service; and Mr. Ahmed Bedewy, Head of the Promotion Sector at GAFI.
The Arab Republic of Egypt and the Federal Republic of Germany reaffirmed their long-standing economic relations, spanning nearly one hundred years, and expressed their aspiration to deepen these ties in tangible and effective ways during the coming period.
Both sides noted that the Joint Economic Committee represents a high-level institutional framework reflecting the special importance of the partnership between the two countries. It also provides a regular platform for dialogue, priority setting, and implementation follow-up, complemented by direct engagement with the business community through the Trade Forum.
The two sides pledged to elevate bilateral economic relations across all fields, particularly energy, technology, and manufacturing, with a special focus on industry and related value chains.
The two ministers emphasized the importance of the Egyptian–German Joint Economic Committee meetings in strengthening and consolidating bilateral relations, underscoring the need to hold these meetings on a regular basis to review progress in economic, trade, investment, industrial, and energy cooperation, and to exchange views on prevailing policies in both countries and surrounding regions.
Both sides discussed bilateral cooperation and agreed to take concrete steps to enhance collaboration in trade, investment, economic development, industry, and energy.
With regard to trade, bilateral trade volume between Egypt and Germany reached €5.5 billion in 2024. Key traded commodities included garments, food products, petroleum, machinery and electrical equipment, chemical products, as well as automobiles and spare parts.
Both sides also emphasized the importance of strengthening investments and cooperation in sectors such as maritime transport and logistics services, food industries and petrochemicals, construction materials, waste recycling investments, and green energy technologies.
The Egyptian side encouraged the German business community to benefit from Egypt’s trade agreements with Africa (AfCFTA and COMESA), as well as the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, to access large consumer markets, in addition to leveraging the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Agreement on rules of origin, which offers significant trade and investment opportunities in European and Mediterranean markets for both countries.
The two sides agreed to exchange expertise in programs supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurship, business facilitation, technology transfer, SME digitalization, and innovative financial tools for startups and small enterprises.
Regarding investment and economic development, both sides expressed their desire to enhance investment cooperation across various fields through proposals including the exchange of data and information on Egypt’s business environment and investment-related legislation, including the new Egyptian Investment Law; showcasing available investment opportunities in both countries; designating contact points to establish effective communication channels in investment cooperation; encouraging and supporting promotional missions and business visits; presenting investment incentives and advantages; and fostering new partnerships across different sectors.
Both sides highlighted strong opportunities to expand cooperation in areas such as advanced engineering, industrial digital transformation, renewable energy, and sustainable industry. They also emphasized the importance of benefiting from German expertise in automation, applied research, renewable energy, energy efficiency, green hydrogen, and vocational education.
The German side was invited to explore investment opportunities available in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, particularly in green hydrogen and its complementary industries, solar cells and renewable energy, logistics services, data centers, railways and rolling stock, automobiles and electric batteries, petrochemicals and tires, pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients, construction materials, textiles, and agro-industries.
The Egyptian side emphasized the importance of strengthening industrial cooperation with Germany through expertise exchange, technology transfer, localization, and capacity building in clean energy fields, including energy efficiency and new and renewable energy, engineering industries—especially automotive components—food and agro-industries, as well as value-added mining industries.
Coordination also took place to provide industrial investment opportunities to the German side across 28 promising industries, present incentives for Egypt’s industrial sector, and share Robbiki Leather City brochures with German companies to encourage investment, in addition to exchanging updated industrial investment laws and procedures between both sides.
Both parties stressed the importance of supporting green industrial transformation and reducing carbon emissions through the exchange of German best practices in carbon-intensive industries, particularly iron and steel, cement, aluminum, and fertilizers.
In the energy sector, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to continuing cooperation through existing channels and agreements, especially in energy transition, decarbonization, and collaboration with the private sector.
