Ezz also serves as the secretary general of the Union of African Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture, and Professions (UACCIAP), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Egypt), and the Association of Enterprises for Environmental Conservation (AEEC).

Moreover, he is vice president of the Union of Euro-Mediterranean Trade, Distribution, and Services (EuroMed TDS) and the Mediterranean Environmental Association.

He also chairs the Union of Euro-Mediterranean Business Organizations and the EU EBSOMED executive committee and serves on the executive boards of ASCAME and the Med Alliance.

Ahram Online: How do you perceive the current state of economic cooperation between Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus, and what specific initiatives are being considered to enhance the relations ahead of the 2025 trilateral summit?

Alaa Ezz: The current economic cooperation is good, but it certainly can be a lot better, especially with the excellent political relations between the heads of the three states and the historical friendship between their peoples.

Today, Egypt and Greece cooperate in trade, maritime, energy, culture, and tourism. Greece is the fourth-largest European investor in Egypt, with over 208 Greek companies active in the Egyptian market, while Egypt is Greece's sixth-largest trading partner.

Cypriot investments in Egypt total $358 million in 191 projects in services, industry, construction, tourism, and agriculture, with many more in the pipeline.

Trade with Greece reached $2 billion and with Cyprus $100 million, with an annual growth rate of over 20 percent. More importantly, 75 percent of these figures are in imports from Egypt.

The new initiatives we intend to propose during the 2025 trilateral summit cover energy, agriculture, industrial subcontracting, tourism, maritime transport, and fisheries. This also includes cooperation in employing Egyptian workers in Cyprus in the hospitality, agriculture, and construction sectors.

AO: How do you expect the upcoming Egyptian-Cypriot-Greek business conference in Cairo to impact trade relations and investment opportunities among the three countries?

AE: Naturally, we will work on increasing the bilateral trade mix, which has been growing by over 20 percent, but more importantly, we will propose third-country cooperation.

Greek and Cypriot companies should use Egypt as a manufacturing and logistic hub as the country has free trade areas of over three billion consumers in Africa, the Arab world, Mercosur, the USA, the EU, EFTA, and the UK without any customs and with excellent low-cost logistic links.

This could be done through new investments or subcontracting existing companies. Hence, we are simultaneously increasing our exports.

This also includes creating consortiums for infrastructure projects in Africa and reconstruction of Libya, Iraq, and hopefully, Sudan and Syria in the near future.

To support these, we will conduct targeted B2B meetings and present over 22 billion euros of soft loans, investment guarantees, and trade finance offered to Egypt by various development banks and funds.

AO: How important is the private sector's role in achieving the goals of trilateral cooperation, and what measures are being taken to engage businesses from Greece and Cyprus?

AE: The private sector constitutes over 80 percent of GDP, employment, and exports. So, it is the backbone of any economic cooperation.

Chambers are, by law, the official representatives of the private sector, nationally and abroad.

Hence, such dialogue is conducted between the federations of chambers on both macro and micro levels.

This is done at the chamber level and with the various summits and ministerial meetings in a public-private partnership, which is the modus operandi of the three countries.

Moreover, both partner countries always support Egyptian economic issues in the European Union, and Egypt does the same in the Arab League.

AO: Looking beyond the 2025 summit, what is your long-term vision for the economic relationship between Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus, and how do you plan to sustain momentum in cooperation after the conference in Cairo?

AE: The 2025 trilateral summit is an important enabler to our long-term vision.

We are concluding concept papers for priority sectors, investment opportunities, and initiatives, which all chambers and embassies will widely circulate.

Roadshows and sectorial workshops will augment this in the three countries.

Thanks to the European Union, all of this is supported by our 16 EU-funded regional and cross-border cooperation projects that link the chambers in the three countries covering priority sectors with a budget exceeding 85 million euros.

Furthermore, we have passed the first selection phase of the EU Next Med cross-border call for proposals, including 12 projects and three countries with budgets of over 60 million euros.

This will create a strong vehicle for promoting economic cooperation over the next three years.

Lastly, various initiatives of the ASCAME, chaired by the Alexandria chamber, with Greece and Cyprus on the board, are an important vehicle for bringing our businesses together.

AO: Can you share the conference agenda and the aim of the meetings in conjunction with the trilateral summit in January?

AE: We will start with preset targeted B2B meetings linking the business leaders.

The conference will start with keynote addresses by the guests of honour, followed by presenting the 22 billion euros of grants, soft loans, investment guarantees, and trade finance for the private sector from various bilateral and multilateral development banks and funds.

Additionally, presentations on business opportunities and doing business in and through Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus will be given. These will be followed by networking and a cultural event.