The US embassy in Cairo stated that a business delegation from the US headed by Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Ambassador David Thorne arrived to Cairo on Sunday to promote US-Egypt economic ties, reported Aswat Masriya.
According to a statement by the US embassy in Cairo, the delegation- which is expected to stay in Egypt for three days-includes representatives from more than 50 US companies who will be meeting with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, ministers and other government officials.
The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said in June that U.S. investments in Egypt have retreated during the past year by 85.9 % compared to investments made in 2014.
Even imports from the US fell by 11.3 % in 2015, to reach EGP 33.5 billion compared to EGP 37.8 billion in 2014, according to CAPMAS.
Several delegations from the U.S. House and Senate have visited Egypt in the past months to discuss the security conditions and economic development in Egypt.
It seems that the United States of America is responding to Israel’s request to support al-Sisi as Israel fears that the deteriorating economic conditions would shake al-Sisi’s power.
In this context, Yedioth Ahronoth has pointed to “recent talks held between senior Israeli and American officials, where concerns were raised over the stability of the Egyptian regime, with the two allies agreeing that in the absence of any fundamental improvement in the Egyptian economy, social unrest could precipitate the pouring of Muslim Brotherhood forces into the streets to undermine the rule of General al-Sisi.”
In the same context, the Israeli newspaper said that Israel is preparing for a series of large-scale projects with Egypt after many years of separation in economic cooperation between the two countries to save al-Sisi’s power.
Egypt’s economy has been suffering since the military coup in 2013. Tourism and foreign investments which were among the major resources of foreign currency have withdrawn as a result of political unrest and security instability in Sinai Peninsula which led to shortage in hard currency.
