Country Profile

At the meeting point of Asia, Africa and Europe, Egypt is African, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean. Its fertile Nile Valley and Delta cultivated one of the world’s first great civilisations, and its geographical location has seen great empires come and go, many of them making Cairo a capital. The population of nearly 87.5m is young, with around half of all Egyptians under the age of 25 and one-third under 15. The growth rate is approximately 1.5% annually, meaning another million-plus Egyptians are born every year. Egypt has a well-balanced economy by regional standards, diversified across manufacturing, extraction activity (which includes the mining, oil and gas sectors), agriculture, construction, tourism and the various segments of the rapidly emerging services sector. While the country runs a trade deficit, its export activity has continued to grow over recent years. Egypt’s biggest trading partner is the EU, which accounted for 32.6% of its exports in 2012/13.

This chapter contains interviews with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Robert Walter MP, Chair, UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Egypt, as well as a viewpoint from Wang Yi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of China.