Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Thursday inaugurated the Egypt–Angola Business Forum in Luanda, marking the start of an official visit aimed at deepening economic ties between the two African nations.
The event, held on the sidelines of the inaugural session of the Egypt–Angola Joint Committee, brought together senior officials and representatives from both governments, alongside dozens of private-sector figures. Sherif El-Gabaly, who heads the African Cooperation Committee at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, led the Egyptian business delegation, which included companies active in energy, construction, infrastructure and information technology.
Speaking at the opening session, Abdelatty said the strong turnout from investors, industry leaders and government agencies reflected the growing momentum in relations between Cairo and Luanda. He described the forum as a key platform for expanding trade, promoting joint ventures and identifying new opportunities for cooperation in fast-growing sectors across both economies.
According to the minister, Egypt sees significant scope for increasing the volume of bilateral trade, which remains below potential despite recent diplomatic engagement and efforts to improve connectivity between North and Southern Africa. Egypt, he noted, is keen to diversify its export basket to Angola while encouraging Angolan firms to explore the Egyptian market and the wider region through Egypt’s network of trade agreements.
Abdelatty stressed that Egyptian companies were well-positioned to operate in Angola, especially in infrastructure and engineering, sectors in which Egypt has undertaken large-scale national projects in recent years. He highlighted Egypt’s experience in road construction, housing, energy transmission and industrial zone development, saying these capabilities could support Angola’s own plans to modernise transport systems, expand electricity access and accelerate post-war reconstruction.
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The minister said Cairo also viewed the forum as a mechanism for building partnerships between public and private entities, enabling companies in both countries to collaborate on investments inside Angola and across regional corridors. In this context, he underlined the strategic importance of the Lobito Corridor, which links Angola’s Atlantic coast to the interior of the continent and is being developed as a major logistics route connecting Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo to global markets. Egypt, he added, was ready to contribute expertise in logistics, port management and transport infrastructure.
Energy cooperation featured prominently in Abdelatty’s remarks. He pointed to Egypt’s established industries in petrochemicals, gas processing, renewable energy and emerging hydrogen technologies, arguing that these capacities offer avenues for new partnerships with Luanda, which is seeking to diversify its oil-dependent economy. Opportunities exist, he said, in refining, storage, distribution networks, and in training programmes for Angolan engineers and technical staff.
The minister announced that Egypt and Angola were preparing to sign a memorandum of understanding in the health sector. The agreement, he said, would pave the way for Egyptian pharmaceutical products to enter the Angolan market and support efforts to strengthen the country’s health services. Egypt aims to supply affordable, high-quality medicines while cooperating on training programmes for medical personnel and exploring joint investments in healthcare facilities.
Abdelatty also called for closer cooperation between the two countries’ financial sectors. Strengthening banking links, easing cross-border transactions and eliminating double taxation, he said, were essential for encouraging investors and enabling companies to operate more freely. He urged both sides to accelerate procedures related to licensing and business registration in order to remove obstacles facing private-sector partnerships.
He added that Egypt’s General Authority for Investment was ready to work with its Angolan counterpart to improve the business climate and support companies entering either market. Plans are also under way to establish an Egypt–Angola Business Council, an institutional mechanism designed to sustain dialogue between business communities, follow up on investment proposals and help expand bilateral trade.
The forum, he said, marked “a new stage” in economic cooperation between the two nations, with both governments seeking to turn political goodwill into tangible projects.
