H.E Reda El-Taify (second from right), Egyptian ambassador to Seoul poses with Mr. Sherif El Gabably (left), head of the Egyptian side in the Egyptian Korean Business Council, Mr. Mahmoud Attalah (right), head of the Egyptian delegation & vice president of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones ( GAFI ), and Mr. Han Joon Woo , executive vice president KOTRA at the seminar in Hyatt Hotel Seoul on May 12, 2006.

Following up on President Roh Moo-hyun's state visit to Egypt, a group of Egyptian government and business officials arrived in Seoul May 10, 2006 to promote bilateral investment and trade.

Mahmoud Fathi Atallah, vice chairman of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, led the 17-member delegation in a seminar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Friday, and in several meetings held until yesterday with local firms investing in Egypt such as Dong Il Corp., Samsung Electronics and LG.

Also among the delegation was Dr. Elgabaly , the head of the Egyptian side in the Egyptian Korean Business council .

Korean business and government officials greeted the delegates at the Egyptian Embassy Thursday. Among them were Park Jai-eon, project manager at GS Engineering and Construction; Kim Hee-teck, deputy director-general of Middle East and African affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; and Cho Hyun-man, deputy senior manager of the international affairs division at the Federation of Korean Industries.

``President Roh's visit at the invitation of President Hosni Mubarak really opened up opportunities for Korean businessmen to explore investment and trade," Egyptian Ambassador Reda El-Taify said. "this Seminar should shed more lights in the different opportunities in Business fields in Egypt such as IT , Petrochemicals , Tourism Investments" the Ambassador Added .

"The recent example for this is GS company" the Ambassador explained. "GS is expected to fill a construction order, as the firm is leading a consortium to build a natural gas facility worth $350 million in Alexandria, Egypt, with the plant's completion targeted for 2008." He said .

As of the end of last year, plant construction orders won by domestic builders in Africa stood at $3.7 billion, or 24 percent of Korea's total orders for overseas plants, with Nigeria topping the list.

Korean firms' investment in Egypt stood at a meager $200 million last year. Thus, the GS project alone nearly doubles the country's interest there.