Abdel Fattah El Sisi knows how to haggle, The New York Times said on its website, adding that the Egyptian president does say so himself.
An executive from General Electric recently told him that it would take at least 24 months to finish a utilities project, but Mr Sisi demanded just eight, he boasted Sunday in a televised address.
When he heard the company’s price, he exclaimed, “For God’s sake!” Mr. Sisi continued, asserting he had talked the prices down until the executive pleaded that General Electric could reduce its cost no further — and even then, Mr Sisi said, he had squeezed out a little more.
“I said, ‘Please, again, let’s remove this 100 million,’ and he did! General Electric did!” Mr Sisi declared, to rapturous applause in a packed conference room here.
His tales of his negotiating prowess are in many ways emblematic of his efforts to turn around Egypt’s sputtering economy: energetic and well publicized, centered on top-down direction from his own office, and with results that remain to be seen, the paper added.