Secretary General of the Association for Economic Information Europe-Egypt
Dr. El-Samman became secretary general of the Association for Economic Information Europe-Egypt in 1984. After the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1983, he resigned from his position with the official state-run media agency, but remained active in the field. Because of its importance to the future of Egypt, he became particularly involved with the economic media. At this time, he began nurturing the idea to form an organization to improve the accuracy and transparency of Egyptian economic information, as well as its availability to foreign investors and decision makers.
Europe-Egypt, which counts among its board members individuals from major international publications, was honored to have the Chancellor of Austria, Bruno Kreisky, serve as honorary head of the Association until his death in 1990. As for funding, the initial grant came from Siemens, a German multinational, which has played a major role in Egypt’s financial and economic development.
Two years after the association’s inception, Dr. El-Samman directed the production of a series of focused and objective studies on a variety of large-scale infrastructure projects in Egypt. Later, witnessing exciting technological developments, he turned the Association’s focus to global communications for the 21st century, continuing Europe-Egypt's 28-year tradition of providing dependable information about Egypt’s economy to a western audience.