L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

chandise for the sum of 145 million rubles, including 37 million
(25%) from Egypt 22 .
Notably, almost all Egyptian goods are supplied to Russia by
private companies, quite interested in expanding the cooperation
with their Russian partners. In 1997, an Egyptian-Russian joint venture
was founded to export Egyptian agricultural products to Russia
with an authorized capital of $100 million, of which 60% was invested
by the Egyptian party. 23
The Egyptian guarantor of the company was the Bank for Export
Development. In 1998, four Russian-Egyptian private companies
were founded in Moscow to export and import various goods and
services, from supplying Egyptian oranges to Russia to transferring
modern Russian technologies in light and food processing industries
to Egypt. 24
Russia was and is a promising market for Egyptian goods.
Russian private companies may get a fair return by creating joint
ventures for manufacturing the following goods to be imported to
Russia: medicines; light industry products, especially cotton articles,
whose quality on average is much higher than those of
China or Turkey; food products, including chilled vegetables and
fruits, which are much cheaper than in Europe; household chemicals.
In turn, Egypt can make a good use of Russian equipment and
advanced technologies. The most promising items are cars, trucks,
equipment for chemical and gas industry, metal-working machines,
agricultural equipment and planes. The activation of the Russian-
Egyptian trade heavily depends on the normal functioning of the
port in Novorossiysk and cooperation in the transportation and customs
clearance.
The creation of joint ventures and realization of investment projects
are important spheres of the cooperation between Russian and
Egyptian businessmen. In the future, they may become the main
fields of cooperation. Since 1958, Russia has built 97 industrial,
power and agricultural projects, including the Aswan High Dam,
Helwan metallurgical plant and Nag-Hammadi aluminum plant,
which play an important role in the Egyptian economy.
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