U.S. businesses look for a strengthening of Intellectual Property Rights protection in terms of increased enforcement, as well as the passage of a new patent law. A range of hurdles hinders U.S. agricultural exports, and firms are concerned by decrees setting new requirements for imports of consumer goods and automobiles. Companies continue to cite red tape, bureaucracy and a changing and opaque regulatory environment as impediments. As daunting as these challenges may appear, senior Egyptian leaders continue to stress the Government's determination to press forward with economic reform while assuring that the social needs of the Egyptian people are met. Tourism and the Suez Canal dominate Egypt's services sector which accounts for 32.1 percent of GDP and 34.7 percent of total exports of goods and services.
Tourism is Egypt's top foreign exchange earner.
Competition from alternative routes and oil pipelines, a decrease in the number of car transports, and the effect of the East Asian economic downturn are among the factors squeezing canal revenues. To encourage the use of the waterway, the Suez Canal Authority has experimented with new pricing, policies and has plans to deepen the canal. On the positive side, over the last five years improved concession rates have drawn multinationals into exploration for oil and gas. The most significant developments have been in the gas sector, with promising finds made in the Western Desert and in the offshore Nile Delta region. Companies have made large investments in these fields, encouraged by attractive Egyptian purchase prices indexed to Gulf of Suez crude.