France is ready to cooperate with Egypt on wheat procurement: Bruno Le Maire

CAIRO – 28 March 2022: French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire told Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli Monday that France is ready to cooperate with Egypt on procurement of wheat amid the economic crisis the world is enduring, especially that France produces 35 million tons of the crop, and exports 17-18 million tons out of them.

Le Maire's statement was the response to the prime minister expressing Egypt's desire to rely on France to secure its needs of staples, such as wheat, if the Ukrainian-Russian crisis last for long.

On the other hand, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek al-Mulla, who also attended the meeting, presented the mechanisms Egypt adopt to supply gas, fulfilling short-term and long-term contracts, the quantities available in each period of the year, and the status of supplies to European Union countries.

Also, Minister of Supply and Internal Trade Ali al-Mosely displayed the developments of establishing an Egyptian-French company that would operate in the wholesale sector.

Le Maire noted the negative impact of the crisis on low-income citizens worldwide, lauding Egypt's resort to benefit from the support offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to countries in such circumstances.

Prime Minister Madbouli held a meeting with the French minister to discuss in details pushing forward partnerships in the sectors specified by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi earlier.

The president had told Le Maire at Al Itiyadiyah Presidential Palace on Monday that he looked forward to more French investments in Egypt's different national projects.

That is particularly in the sectors of transportation, manufacturing of electric vehicles, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, digital services, recycling, and production of green hydrogen.

The prime minister pointed out to his meeting with members of the Movement of the Enterprises of France (MEDEF) on March 21, where he highlighted measures aimed at eliminating hindrances facing French companies operating in Egypt, and on resolving disputes. A case in point is the signing of the settlement of the issue of Veca, which was one of the shareholders at Sinai Fertilizers Company.  

During the visit, an MoU was signed for a French consortium led by Alstom to supply Egypt with the railcars to be operated on the sixth metro line. That is in addition to another MoU for Egypt to acquire funding from the French government to the purchase of 55 air-conditioned trains for the first metro line.

On another level, the French minister of economy and finance expressed readiness to transfer technology and experience pertaining to the production of green hydrogen.