A.      The Prime Minister Visit to Kuwait and UAE : 1.      On the second of December, the Prime Minister started a visit to Kuwait and UAE as a head of a delegation comprising the ministers of investment, finance, housing, transport and tourism as well as the chairman of the General Authority on Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) in addition to representatives of trade and industrial chambers and a large number of Egyptian businessmen. 2.      During the visit to Kuwait, several issues relevant to the bilateral cooperation were discussed; namely increasing FDI from Kuwait and developing the existing Kuwaiti investments in Egypt such as the joint Egyptian Kuwaiti company. Meanwhile as a sign of increasing confidence in the Egyptian investment climate, the Kuwaiti side expressed his interest in establishing several projects in Egypt especially in the real estate sector and the capital market. On the other hand, the Egyptian side offered investment opportunities in the Upper Egypt development projects,  transport, storage, IT as well as public private partnership (PPP) in establishing schools and hospitals. 3.      In view of the increasing UAE investments in Egypt including the third Mobile telephone operator as well as investments in tourism, real estate and other sectors, the prime minister held meetings with key UAE businessmen investing in Egypt. It is worth mentioning that the number of companies with UAE capital participation in Egypt amount to 213 companies of which 78 are industrial and 51 are agricultural. 4.      Moreover, in the opening session of the 4th round of the Arab Strategic Forum that was held in Dubai from the 4th to the 6th of December, the Prime minister stressed on the fact that the domestic investment in Egypt is increasing at a higher rate than the foreign investment and that the government is adopting a strategy of attracting investment irrelevant of its origin for the aim of technology transfer and creating more job opportunities. 5.      On the other hand, the Prime minister witnessed the signature of a number of agreements, one of which was signed by the minister of tourism and DAMAC company for the establishment of a tourist complex in Ghashma Gulf in Hurghada over an area of 320 cubic feet, as well an agreement on marine sports and an agreement in Abu Dhabi of establishing a new road from Borg Elarab in Alexandria to Aswan for an investment of 8bn USD. B.       Developments in the Energy Sector:   1-      During the 77th ministerial meeting of the OAPEC, held on the 2nd of December, the minister of Petroleum announced a new Egyptian initiative to hold a conference for the Arab joint petroleum projects in order to review the positive results realized by this joint projects. Additionally, other issues were discussed in the meeting including the development of the data bank and the economic and technical reports on the the Arab joint projects. 2-      On the sideline of the meeting, joint talks were held between the minister of Petroleum and the Kuwaiti Minister of Energy, where they discussed the aspects of bilateral cooperation between Egypt and Kuwait in all domains of oil, gas and petrochemicals and reviewed the new fields of cooperation including the establishment of Kuwaiti refineries in Egypt, the expansion of the Egyptian Petroleum Services companies works such as Enppi, Petrojet and PMS, after the successes achieved in the Arab States and the cooperation in the field of hi-tech petrochemicals industry, and the study to implement joint projects in this domain, stating various successful projects implemented by both countries and the possibility of increasing them in the future. Moreover, there was an elaboration on the positive cooperation in petroleum and petrochemical domains as represented by the successful joint projects implemented between both countries. 3-      On a similar note, the minister of Petroleum received the Syrian Energy Minister where they discussed the bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the domains of oil and gas including the reviewal of the joint projects between the two countries along with the work progress of the 3rd phase of the Arab Gas Pipeline(AGP), implemented by Syria within its territory with a length of 230 km. On his part, the Syrian minister praised the joint relations between the two countries together with the outstanding performance of the Egyptian companies operating in Syria in the field of petroleum services and exploration, particularly those of ENPPI in Syria; mentioning that it was agreed upon to give the Egyptian petroleum companies a larger role in the near future. 4-      On December 4th, talks were held between the minister of Petroleum and the Chairman of Gazprom, the largest Russian gas producer and exporter worldwide where they discussed the possibility of Gazprom to explore for oil and gas as well as producing them in Egypt within the good prospects of petroleum and the high rates of success in the gas field discoveries particularly in the Mediterranean region along with increasing the Russian investments in the petroleum projects. Additionally, they also discussed deepening  the exchange of technical expertise between the two sides particularly as Gazprom possesses experience and advanced technologies in upstream, production, gas pipelines implementation domains, as well as manufacturing equipment used in oil and gas industry. Discussions were held on means of activating the memorandum of understanding signed between both sides last year, meanwhile an agreement was reached that the joint working group from both sides will hold an upcoming meeting in Cairo to identify the fruits of cooperation projects and set an integrated program for the implementation of specific projects. C.     The rise in the Egyptian Exports to The USA 1-      The Egyptian exports to the US market witnessed a significant increase of 39.6% in the first 9 months of the current year to read 1.9 bn USD versus 1.3 bn USD during the same period of 2005, moreover, Egypt managed to be ranked the 60th major exporter to the US, thus improving by 3 ranks. The trade value between the 2 countries increased by 34.3% to read 4.796 bn USD versus 3.571 bn USD during the same period. 2-      Meanwhile, the Egyptian exports from the QIZ zones reached 470.9 million USD in the first 9 months of the current year, thus representing 25.5% of the total Egyptian exports versus 142.8 million USD in the same period in 2005. The major QIZ exports were textile and garments representing  97.8% of total QIZ exports, whereas other exports included steel and iron, aluminum chips as well as agricultural and food products. 3-      On the other hand, the Egyptian exports to the US of steel and iron increased by 173.9%, textile and garments exports increased by 59.2%, carpets and floor coverings exports increased by 22.1%, exports of aluminum products increased by 19.5% and finally petroleum exports increased by 42.2%.