CAIRO – 11 December 2024: Ambassador to Baghdad Ahmed Samir met earlier this week with Iraqi Minister of Migration Evan Faek Gabro to express readiness to transfer experience on providing care to migrants, maintaining expats' connection to the homeland, and benefiting from their experience in national projects.
On her side, Minister Gabro expressed appreciation to Egypt for facilitating the voluntary return of Iraqi refugees to Iraq, and for the speed of issuing all types of visas to Iraqis wanting to visit Egypt.
The Egyptian ambassador had met with Iraqi Minister of Manufacturing and Minerals Khaled Battal Negm in November expressing Egypt's interest in establishing factories in partnership with Iraq, localizing industries in the country and fulfilling growing demand in both states.
The ambassador stressed the importance of reinforcing cooperation between the Egyptian and Iraqi private sectors, as well as boosting Egyptian exports to Iraq.
On his side, Minister Negm stated that the most needed Egyptian exports are textiles, construction materials, and food. He equally pointed out that Iraqi private firms were open to collaborate with Egyptian counterparts.
A month earlier, the ambassador and Iraqi Minister of Trade Athir Daoud Salman al-Gherizi discussed in October leveraging the 11 MoUs and cooperation protocols signed in June 2023 as an outcome of the joint supreme committee that convened to push forward economic collaboration in different fields.
Minister Gherizi pointed out that there are promising opportunities for Egyptian exports given that the size of Iraq's imports are $74 billion. As such, both Gherizi and Samir said they looked forward to the next session of the committee to take place in January 2025.
Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development Kamel al-Wazir, who also serves as minister of industry and transport, held an official visit to the Iraqi capital Baghdad on September 8-10.
Wazir met the Iraqi prime minister, ministers of transport, housing, and industry, and chairman of the investment authority. He also inspected the construction works of the Serafeya Bridge implemented by Samco Egypt.
The visit included talks on implementing developmental projects in Iraq, particularly infrastructure, roads, bridges railways, residential areas, power plants and water treatment plants.
Hence, the representatives of Egyptian firms expressed ability to execute the projects in the best quality while committing to the timeline set by the Iraqi government.
Egypt's exports to Iraq surged to $308.5 million between January and May, marking a notable rise from $274.7 million in the same period of 2023, reflecting a $34.4 million increase as per recent data unveiled by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).
In the initial five months of 2024, Egypt's imports from Iraq tallied at $4.1 million, showing a climb from $2.3 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2023, depicting a $1.7 million surge.
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