Two days at the Egypt-EU Investment Conference in New Cairo
Tarry Singh spent 29 and 30 June 2024 in the Al Manara theatre for the Egypt-EU Investment Conference, then 3 July with students and the Progressio team in Cairo.
The Egypt-EU Investment Conference ran on 29 and 30 June 2024 at the Al Manara International Conference Center in New Cairo. Three marks repeated across every backdrop in the building: the Arab Republic of Egypt Cabinet, the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones, and the European Union. The main room is a theatre. Red velvet seats, gilded boxes along both walls, and a curved screen filling the width of the proscenium.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi opened from a lectern carrying the Egyptian state emblem. Ursula von der Leyen spoke from the same podium, and the screen behind her named her President of the European Commission. Later the relay camera found the two of them seated together in the front row, El-Sisi with a microphone in his hand. Most of the hall listened through interpretation headsets.
The programme worked through panels. Panel 2 was titled Transforming Egypt: Strategic Reforms for a Nearshoring Hub, and its board of headshots read Alaa Ezz of FEDCOC and CEEBA, Mary Beth Goodman of the OECD, Hossam Heiba of GAFI, Gert Jan Koopman of the European Commission, Susan M. Lund of the IFC, Ahmed El Sewedy of El Sewedy Electric, and Aiman Ezzat of Capgemini. Osama Kamal moderated from the same stage. A separate session asked what the programmes hold for the private sector, with Sherif Elkholy of Actis and Ahmed Kouchouk of the Ministry of Finance on the bill. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly took a seat beside Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice President of the European Commission.
A good deal of the work happened off the stage. Delegates held meetings in a gilt lounge with small Egyptian and EU flags set on the coffee tables. An Egyptian television crew filmed an interview against the conference screen. People queued at the step-and-repeat wall for the photograph that proves attendance. On the evening of 29 June the dinner was laid out at the Citadel, tables set under the floodlit domes and minarets of the Mosque of Muhammad Ali.
The week did not end with the conference. On 3 July the day ran from a lecture room of students east of Cairo to the Progressio office in Heliopolis, where the team stood for a group photograph under a banner carrying the Real AI mark alongside their own.
El-Sisi at the lectern seen from the floor of the hall, delegates seated in the rows in front of the stage. 
The screen names Osama Kamal as moderator as the panel takes its seats on stage, the audience watching from the stalls. 
Von der Leyen walks toward the stage steps; the screen names her President of the European Commission. 
The audience listening through interpretation headsets, von der Leyen and Prime Minister Madbouly seated among the front rows. 
The relay screen shows El-Sisi speaking with a microphone from his seat in the front row, von der Leyen beside him. 
An Egyptian television crew films an interview in the delegates' lounge, the conference screen mounted on the wall behind. 
Delegates in conversation around a low table in the lounge, small Egyptian and EU flags set between them. 
The delegates' lounge during a break, groups seated in gilt armchairs and standing across the room. 
Two delegates standing at the step-and-repeat wall of the Egypt-EU Investment Conference. 
Two delegates shake hands in front of the conference wall, both wearing accreditation badges. 
Two delegates holding conference folders at the step-and-repeat wall. 
Two delegates in front of the session screen on what the programmes hold for the private sector, naming Sherif Elkholy of Actis and Ahmed Kouchouk of the Ministry of Finance. 
The conference dinner laid out at the Cairo Citadel, guests moving between the tables with the floodlit Mosque of Muhammad Ali behind. 
A lecture room of seated students and staff east of Cairo, 3 July 2024. 
The Progressio team photographed together under a banner carrying the Progressio and Real AI marks. 
Tarry Singh standing in front of the Progressio and Real AI banner at the Progressio office.
