Egypt has entered into an unwritten understanding with five U.S. corporations–Coca Cola, Ford, Xerox, Motorola and Colgate Palmolive–to help them get off the Arab boycott list if they will invest in industrial activities in Egypt, according to reports from Cairo. The five corporations are ready to invest in Egyptian projects, even if unprofitable, if Egypt can open the way to lucrative markets in the rest of the Arab world, it was reported.
To date, Egypt has had minimal success in attracting Western, particularly American, capital investment it desperately needs. At least four of the five firms have gotten preliminary approval from Egypt’s general authority for foreign investments but implementation of operations in Egypt awaits results of Egypt’s efforts to get them off the blacklist, the reports noted. They said the two projects farthest advanced in planning are those of Ford and Coca Cola, blacklisted for years because of their trade with Israel.
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