UAE, Egypt sign reinsurance deal to bolster economic cooperation

Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI), the UAE Federal export credit agency (ECA), and its Egyptian counterpart Export Credit Guarantee of Egypt (EGE) have signed a reciprocal reinsurance agreement to support Emirati and Egyptian projects in their respective countries as well as their collaborative initiatives around the world.

The agreement between the two state-owned firms will bolster the strong trade and economic cooperation, in addition to boosting export relations.

The broad range of trade credit insurance amongst these two entities will help anticipate and mitigate risks they might encounter due to various political, commercial, and non-commercial reasons. This comes as a follow-up to the alliance ECI and EGE formed at the end of 2019, which spawned a tremendous surge in their non-oil trade despite the challenging economic cycle triggered by the pandemic fallout.

Commenting on the strategic collaboration between ECI and EGE, Massimo Falcioni, CEO of ECI, said: “The UAE has been maintaining a strong, historical bilateral relationship with Egypt since its establishment, and the non-oil trade relations between these regional powers continue to improve, riding on a host of strategic collaborations. Deepening our existing partnership, this reinsurance agreement will give rise to unparalleled trading opportunities for local businesses to improve their regional and global competitiveness.” Meanwhile, Mohamed Azzam, Managing Director & GM of EGE said: “The UAE has always been our leading trading partner in the region, with significant mutual business cooperation prevailing among the citizens of both nations for a long time. We believe this reciprocal reinsurance partnership with Etihad Credit Insurance will usher in a new era of economic prosperity, making a huge difference in our businesses transactions through a wide range of credit insurance solutions offered by both ECAs.”

Data from the UAE’s Ministry of Economy show that non-oil trade between the UAE and Egypt in 2020 amounted to Dhs25.8 billion, a 14.34 per cent growth compared to Dhs22.1 billion in 2019, demonstrating a solid and enduring strategic association between the countries.

With the UAE and Egypt’s shared historical relations, both countries have benefitted from mutual agreements that have helped heighten regional security and fortify sustainable development across Arab countries.

The UAE is Egypt’s second-leading trading partner in the Gulf region and ninth in the world, and their non-oil trade exchange doubled four times from 2010 to 2019.

Emirati foreign direct investments in Egypt amounted to nearly $15 billion, while Egyptian investments in the UAE totalled over $1 billion.

The Gulf of Suez Petroleum Company (Gupco), the joint company between Dragon Oil, an upstream exploration and production platform fully owned by the Government of Dubai, and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, has recently signed an agreement with the Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries (ENPPI), (PETROJET) and the Petroleum Marine Services Company (PMS), worth $41 million. The agreement aims to launch a marine platform to develop the “North Safa” field and to install 10-km-long production lines, in order to increase production from 10,000 bpd to 15,000 bpd.