EU supports research capacities in agriculture field in Egypt

CAIRO - 19 September 2017: Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Egypt Ivan Surkos on Tuesday participated in a closure event in Cairo for the twinning project "Support the Improvement of Agricultural Research in Egypt through the Modernization of the Agricultural Research Center (ARC)", the European Union Delegation to Egypt said in a statement published on its official website.

"Research, as a driver of innovation, has a key role to play to ensure continuous agricultural production gains and to increase the competitiveness of the agricultural products in both domestic and international markets," Surkos said .

He highlighted the fact that the EU has been – and continues to be – an important development partner of Egypt's agricultural sector with a total contribution of over 200 million Euros in the last 20 years.

The scope of the twinning project was to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural research in Egypt by consolidating the legal basis and strengthening the coordination and operational capacity of the ARC in accordance with EU best practices.

The event marks the conclusion of this twinning project funded by the EU, with a total budget of 1.4 million Euros.

The project started mid-2015 and was managed by the Programme Administration Office (PAO) of the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation in the framework of the Support to the Association Agreement Program (SAAP).

Implementation took the form of a partnership between the Agricultural Research Center, Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation and counterpart institutions from France, leading partner, Italy and the Netherlands. During this long term institutional cooperation project, expert missions from European administrations took place to support ARC experts. Egyptian experts also visited institutions in the different European partners' countries.