Barry Townsund imparted to Al-Sharq a fervent Egyptian enthusiasm for bolstering the alliance with Qatar.

Barry Townsund, a Middle East expert at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and International Policy and a non-resident fellow at the New American Progressive Center, confirmed that the important visit held by the Egyptian Prime Minister to Qatar, which was accompanied by a good positive atmosphere and important official statements about the remarkable development of relations between the two countries within the framework of the great care that The Egyptian government’s commitment to increasing the volume of investments of Qatari companies in Egypt, increasing the rates of trade exchange between the two countries, and promoting distinguished cooperation to what it aspires to achieve in terms of achieving an additional margin of important investments in order to aspire to the interests and aspirations of the two countries and to translate the joint political will in promoting diversified cooperation, which is the matter Which was confirmed by the many high-level official visits that brought together Doha and Cairo in recent months, especially since the past year witnessed a number of important diplomatic visits that followed the Al-Ula agreement for the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in January 2021, and the visit of His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of the country. Al-Mufdi to Egypt, then the visit of His Excellency Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to Qatar on an official working visit, and in the presence of The Egyptian president also opened the 2022 FIFA,Football,Soccer World Cup for men in Qatar, with the presence of important Qatari mediation in the Egyptian-Turkish relations, especially in the meeting that brought together His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the opening of the World Cup. This was followed by important official statements from the Turkish and Egyptian Foreign Ministry regarding this meeting in Qatar as a positive turning point in the course of relations between Cairo and Ankara through support, welcome and important Qatari messages in this regard, which was the same thing that was noticeable in the recent Egyptian statements that coincided with the visit of the President Egyptian ministers to Qatar within the framework of a working visit to encourage Qatari and Gulf investments in Egypt in the midst of the various global transformations that posed many economic challenges. ► Timing and Commitment Barry Townsund, a Middle East expert at the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and International Policy and a non-resident fellow at the New American Progressive Center, says: The important visit that the Egyptian Prime Minister held to Qatar and his praise for the distinguished relations between the two countries and the endeavor to consolidate them, and the important development vision achieved by Qatar in There is a great Egyptian aspiration to benefit from Qatari investments in the future, especially at the level of companies. The agenda of the important visit also aimed to increase the horizon of negotiation and investment regarding the ownership document put forward by the Egyptian government regarding offering 32 major Egyptian companies on the stock exchange for strategic investment. The past periods are important stages of negotiation between the Qatar Sovereign Fund, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, and the Joint Investment Promotion Committees on a number of important proposals regarding the promotion of Qatari investments in the Egyptian market. Strengthening the economic partnership, in order to open the doors to Alas Qatari investments with a package of measures that also included attempts to encourage society, businessmen, and industry in Qatar to invest in Egyptian companies, and put forward a package of banking measures targeting businessmen from Qatar and the Gulf, whether in deposits in the private currency of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates, and before that in issuing Islamic bonds or certificates to direct these procedures. In the Egyptian banking market towards attracting important investments from Qatar and the Gulf countries, especially since the Egyptian economic program relied on foreign exchange guarantees provided by Qatar and the Gulf countries to Egypt in order to initiate borrowing procedures from the International Monetary Fund, and the existence of a package of important measures related to the sale of Egyptian assets In some companies to investors, Qatar has already negotiated a diverse number of projects, whether in real estate, hotels, and strategic ports, as well as strengthening what is related to the energy industry and transformations related to discussing ways to benefit from Qatari leadership in energy and the international scene to attempts to link via pipelines with Europe to export energy, and discussing Other issues and memorandums of understanding on double taxation and cooperation in the field of pharmaceutical manufacturing. Free zones, hotels, and various construction and real estate activities, in light of the fact that the value of trade exchange between Egypt and Qatar increased to reach $80.1 million during the first 11 months of 2022, compared to $45.5 million during the same period in 2021, an increase of 76.2 percent, according to data. The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, and the value of Qatari investments in Egypt amounted to $518.3 million during the fiscal year 2021-2022, compared to $507.9 million during the fiscal year 2020-2021, an increase of 2 percent, according to Egyptian official reports. All of these indicators also prompt us to talk about What Qatar announced about its intention to invest 5 billion dollars in Egypt and the reasons for not achieving this and its importance. ► Important aspects Barry Townsund, the American expert on Middle East files, continues in his statements to Al-Sharq: To clarify this important issue, it is in light of the positive and distinct rapprochement in relations that is observed on more than one level and may have emerged more in the World Cup Qatar 2022 and many months of positive bilateral atmosphere And the common political will, is the seriousness of the Qatari commitment already to invest the value that it announced about $ 5 billion in Egypt on the one hand, and on the other hand, a number of deals that have been negotiated have already been identified regarding a major historic hotel on the Nile in Cairo and another hotel in the area Heliopolis, opportunities to develop the port of Safaga, telecommunications companies, and many of the many indicators that have already been reported in the news, but what was clear regarding the nature of the negotiation is Qatar’s desire to direct the best image for its investments, benefiting from the strength and stability of its currency and its economic vision that seeks to achieve profitable investments in addition to Strategic gains, pending further stability of the Egyptian currency, which witnessed a number of devaluation operations at close intervals that continued in the past year. With the beginning of this year, this gave the negotiations a degree of logical waiting. The official visit of the Egyptian Prime Minister will surely be followed by a number of other visits to sign the important deals that Qatar is expected to make in the Egyptian market in the coming period.