Davis Visits Mubarak, Discusses Farm Deal
Gov. Gray Davis took his six-nation business development tour to Egypt on Thursday, bringing a California entrepreneur into a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak to discuss a project that could transform vast expanses of desert.
The day gave sharp focus to at least one role Davis is playing on this trip: By introducing business leaders from his delegation to the foreign leaders he is visiting, he heightens their credibility in a region where personal relationships are especially important.
Davis is the first sitting California governor to visit an Egyptian leader. He and Southern California entrepreneur Keith Brackpool, president of Cadiz Inc., conferred privately with Mubarak for about 30 minutes at the president’s compound in Cairo.
Mubarak did not address reporters after the meeting; Davis and Brackpool proclaimed it a success.
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, one of the world’s richest men, retained Brackpool’s firm to provide farming expertise and management on what is now arid land in southern Egypt.
The prince and the Egyptian government are financing the Tushka Water Project, an undertaking that boosters--Davis included--say will be among the world’s largest public works projects. It will include a system of massive pumps and canals that will move far more Nile River water than is transported in California’s water system.
Although Brackpool has a significant role in the project, he had not met the Egyptian leader until Thursday.
“This [meeting with Mubarak] is very useful for me, because it is showing that California is interested in the project’s success,” Brackpool said afterward.
His Santa Monica-based Cadiz is among the state’s largest farming concerns. It owns 58,000 acres in the Central Valley, and produces and markets table grapes, tree fruit and other high-value crops.
Brackpool, a former investment banker, took control of the farming operation 13 years ago. He has become a close advisor to Davis on water policy and has been involved in talks over the future of the state’s water system.
In Egypt, Cadiz and its subsidiary, Sun World International, ultimately will farm 50,000 acres of orchards and other crops beginning in 2001.
Brackpool, 42, was one of the earliest backers of Davis’ gubernatorial campaign in 1998. He and his firms donated $134,000 to the governor’s election effort. Altogether, Cadiz spent $415,000 on state campaigns last year.
Davis on Thursday announced two much more modest deals for California companies--one a $4.8-million contract for Santa Rosa-based DriWater, which produces a product used in irrigation, and the other a $2-million deal involving Accurate Sound of Menlo Park. The company will provide air traffic control recording equipment to Egypt.
Davis also signed an agreement aimed at increasing the exchange of university students and faculty, as well as trade between Egypt and California. Additionally, Davis offered California’s expertise in earthquake emergency response and preparedness, in what his aides call earthquake diplomacy.
The governor began the day in Jerusalem and drove to Tel Aviv, where he boarded a jet for Cairo. After meeting with Mubarak and other Egyptian officials throughout the day, Davis led a small caravan of cars and buses through the heavily congested streets to the Pyramids.
Once at a hill overlooking the ancient monuments, Davis climbed atop a camel and posed for pictures.
Several Egyptians gently chided the governor, telling him he should have stayed in Egypt at least three days, the period he has spent in Israel on this trip. Davis vowed to return to Egypt and invited Mubarak to visit California.
The day ended with the governor attending a reception with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in a Tel Aviv penthouse overlooking the sea. Davis will conclude his trip today and return to California on Saturday.
