Qatar announced its commitment to the investments it had previously pledged in Egypt, but stressed that it would not deposit more “grants and charitable aid” in Cairo, in a position that largely coincides with the positions of the rest of the Gulf states that decided to reconsider their support for Egypt.
“We are committed to that,” said Qatari Finance Minister Ali bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari, in response to his country’s pledge in March of last year to provide five billion dollars to Egypt.
“The matter has become purely commercial with Egypt, with regard to Qatar, the provision of grants and charitable aid is not continuous,” the Qatari minister added, in an interview with “Bloomberg” television on the sidelines of the Qatar Economic Forum on Wednesday.
“When it comes to grants and direct cash support, it becomes very difficult,” Al-Kuwari added.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have already taken a similar position, as they emphasized changing their approach to dealing with financial support provided to Egypt, by focusing on investments, and the two countries stressed that there is no longer room for free aid.
Egyptian investment expert Ibrahim El-Hedoudy confirmed that relations between Arab countries have become based on pure interests, especially since sovereign funds have become the biggest controller of investment strategy in most Gulf countries.
Al-Hududi explained in a statement to The Arab Weekly that the political and fraternal relations between Arab kings and presidents are no longer what they were in the past, according to which the Gulf countries used to support Egypt. Every official wants to guarantee the rights of future generations in his country, and this is his right.
The Egyptian expert pointed out that the statements of the Minister of Finance of Qatar are not negative, because the Arab countries, including Qatar, still have deposits in the reserve balances of the Central Bank of Egypt, and that the new statements lay something like a road map that the aid and support tool during the coming period will become investments and will not take the form of Previous grants and aids.
Egypt is suffering from an economic crisis that has worsened since the Russian war on Ukraine in February of last year, after foreign investors withdrew their money from government bonds in light of the high interest rates in Western countries, which contributed to the shortage of foreign currency reserves.
Egypt has always relied on Gulf support to get it out of its economic crises, but this situation has changed in the last two years, in light of the prevailing belief that the Egyptian treasury has turned into a black hole that swallows money, and that there is an urgent need to reconsider support policies, and that Cairo must take the initiative. By undertaking structural reforms, even if they are painful.
The advisor of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Amr Al-Shobaki, said that the exceptional circumstances that Egypt went through after the revolution of June 30, 2013 no longer exist now, and the normal situation is that relations between countries are based on mutual investment and economic partnerships.
Al-Shobaki explained in statements to The Arab Weekly that what reinforces this is the presence of observations on Cairo’s economic performance in the past period, and that the Gulf countries’ taking a step back serves the Egyptian state and makes it more keen on providing the appropriate environment to attract foreign investments, and gives it the opportunity to remove all obstacles in front of foreign and Egyptian investors. .
He pointed out that the positions of Qatar and the Gulf states on the issue of converting aid into practical, logical investments carry full economic connotations with the Gulf observations on the performance of the Egyptian economy, and that the two sides have folded many differences and it is not expected that Doha will take negative positions from Cairo at this time.
Egypt agreed with the International Monetary Fund on $3 billion in financing, while Cairo is racing to secure hard currency by selling state-owned assets.
Last February, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced the names of 32 public companies and assets that will be offered on the stock exchange, including three banks and two companies affiliated with the army.
Qatar’s finance minister said that Doha is open to more investments in Egypt and is looking forward to the manufacturing, communications and tourism sectors
Source: alarab-co-uk
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