The "Aerospace Meetings Tunisie" will be organized in Gammarth, near Tunis, on September 28 -30. The event is organized by the BCI Aerospace company, in collaboration with the Groupe des Industries Tunisiennes Aeronautiques et Spatiales, the Tunisian Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA), the Industry Promotion Agency (API) and the Tunisian-French Chamber of Commerce

According to ANSAmed, "the Egyptian State-controlled insurance company, the construction company Orascom Hotel & Development and a Saudi finance company will participate in the plan, which is expected to cost around USD 5 billion. The governorate of Cairo will also support the plan."

This plan is now waiting for final approval from the Egyptian government

Several Med countries rank in the list of the top countries to bounce back as soon as 2010, established by French business magazine MOCI on the basis of an analysis of IMF’s growth forecasts for 2010.

Along with big emerging countries, untapped growth potential can be found in Africa and Near East notably. This conclusion is drawn by French business magazine MOCI on the basis of International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s data. IMF’s forecasts for 2010, published in the April 2009 World Economic Outlook (WEO) and updated on 8 July 2009, predict a 2.5% economic growth in 2010.

MOCI analyses this data to establish a list of the top 40 countries to bounce back in 2010, i.e. countries with a growth rate to exceed 1.5% in 2010 and to surpass 2009 rate by 1 percentage point at least. 6 Med countries rank among them: Jordan (+4% in 2010), Lebanon (+4%), Algeria (+3.91%), Libya (+2.79%), Cyprus (+2.1%) and Turkey (+1.5%). The Med region is also well represented among the most resilient countries (no recession in 2009 and a positive growth rate in 2010). Morocco ranks 13th, Tunisia: 22nd, Egypt 29th and Syria 31st.

The number of UAE companies in Egypt went up to 440 and the UAE direct investments in the telecommunication sector account for 50 per cent of the total investments [...]', the Emirates Minister Plenipotentiary for Economics and Commercial Affairs recently declared.

According to the UAE authorities, trade volume between the two nations have almost tripled since 2007, reaching US$1.4bn in 2008 against only US$390m in 2007. Despite the current global crisis, 2009 is likely to witness a new surge in exports and imports between the two countries, as a result of the excellent political relations between Cairo and Abu Dhabi.

According to the Emirates Minister for Economics and Commercial Affairs, quoted by Emirates Business 24/7, 'the Egyptian government invited many UAE national investors to participate in the projects. We received a positive response and I expect the UAE Government and private investments in Egypt will rise over next few years. The Egyptian Government issued many legislations that encourage UAE investments, in particular, and foreign investments, in general. The past period witnessed the facilitation of procedures and quick completion of projects. [...]'

Since the economic liberalisation that occured in 2004 under the impulsion of Prime Minister Nazif, capital flows and foreign direct investment towards Egypt have literally exploded, passing from US$354m in 2000 to US$13,2bn in 2008, mainly in the non-oil sectors.

According to a new study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, MENA economies are set to consistently outperform every other region in the world for the next five years.

"The Mena region is the only one in the world that will register a positive real GDP growth rate this year although the 0.9% GDP growth forecast by EIU is a fraction of the 5.9% the region witnessed in 2008. Going forward, however, regional economies are reckoned to witness sharp GDP growth with 4.3 per cent in 2010, going up to 4.9 per cent in 2012, according to the EIU report. The only other region that matches Mena's GDP growth in 2012 is Sub-Saharan Africa, but a smaller GDP base accentuates that rate."

Following the global downturn, the economic growth in the MENA region decelerates sharply but will remain positive: 2.8% in Algeria, 2.4% in Lebanon, 3.7% in Libya, 2.1% in Syria and only 0.2% in Tunisia in 2009. In 2010, the Economist Intelligence Unit expects GDP growth of MENA countries to rebound strongly in Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. According to EIU's experts, economic growth in Egypt and Jordan is likely to remain at the same level in 2009/10, with respectively 4% and 2.7%

According to the Egyptian transport minister Mohamed Mansour, the country will proceed with the tendering of the high-speed railway line project between the capital Cairo and port city of Alexandria in the next few months.

The country expects an Egyptian-Italian feasibility study to be ready in two months, before launching a public tender. According to Mohamed Mansour, it will be open to all private investors and supervised by World Bank's private sector arm IFC "so that it will be tendered in a transparent fashion".

The Egyptian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) signed a USD 10 million deal with Google to develop an advertising platform for Egyptian products and services. Google will invest 25% of payment back into the Egyptian economy. Over the medium to long term, Google’s USD 2.5 million investment agreement may include: development of digital media start-ups, incubation  and venture capital, funding for angels in the ICT sector, and possibly student training in online advertising.

MCIT Minister Tarek Kamel predicts that Egypt's ICT exports to the US will increase to USD 1.1 billion by 2010.

According to a recent Business Monitor International report on the state of the Egyptian industry, despite the internal economic crisis, Egypt’s total ICT spending is expected to increase from USD 1.2 billion in 2008 to USD 1.9 billion by 2013.