Trade Minister Tarek Kabil during his meeting with the Indian delegation - press photo
Cairo – 18 November 2017: Egypt is keen to bolster the economic cooperation with India, particularly in the field of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil said in a statement Saturday.
The minister referred to particular sectors in which the two countries can cooperate such as auto feeding industries, textiles and leather industries.
This came during a meeting with Indian ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya and a delegation of 50 Indian pioneering companies in machines manufacturing and technologies, which is currently visiting Cairo to participate in the “Mactech Expo” that is taking place from 16-19 November.
The delegation is headed by secretary of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Department in government of Tamil Nadu of India.
The ministry is working on building three big industry clusters in the textile field that will include more than 1,000 industry units, Kabil said.
He added that Egypt aims to benefit from the advanced capabilities of India in manufacturing machines used in textile industry for the new industrial units in Egypt.
Kabil said one of these projects is an industrial zone for leather manufacturing, the biggest of its kind in the Middle East and Africa, calling on the Indian business community to participate in manufacturing machines for this project.
According to the statement, the meeting discussed strengthening cooperation between the two countries in the field of SMEs.
The Indian companies were also invited to invest in Egypt and benefit from the bilateral, regional and international free trade agreement Egypt signed with other African, Arab and European markets as well as turkey and Mercosur bloc.
Trade exchange between Egypt and India jumped 11.8 percent to $1.421 billion in the period between January to May 2017, compared to $1.270 billion in the corresponding period last year.
Egypt’s exports to India in the same period reached $ 358 million, compared to $338 million last year, according to Kabil.
Top Egyptian exports to India are petroleum products, phosphate, raw cotton, glass products, marble, granite and oranges.
The minister added that India is contributing in projects in the Egyptian market, with a capital of $3 billion in the fields of textiles, energy and chemical industries.
Comments
Leave a Comment