Egypt, Tunisia agree on boosting trade, investment ties

CAIRO - 12 August 2018: Egypt and Tunisia agreed on boosting trade relations and removing all challenges facing the flow of trade and investment to achieve a quantum leap in the level of trade ties for the interest of both countries.

This came during a meeting of the 5th round of talks of the Egyptian-Tunisian trade and industrial committee which concluded on Saturday.

Egyptian Minister of Trade Amr Nassar and his Tunisian counterpart Omar al Bahi co-chaired the committee.

In a press statement on Sunday, Nassar said that the meeting targeted coordinating between the governments of both countries to facilitate trade movement and activate the role of the private sector and benefit from the resources of both countries to achieve integrated and effective economic partnerships.

Relations between Egypt and Tunisia witnessed big progress as the trade exchange reached $214 million during the first half of 2018, Nassar said.

Both sides agreed on activating the role of the Egyptian-Tunisian business council and intensifying exchanged meetings of their businessmen, he said.

An agreement was reached on inking a cooperation protocol between the Egyptian technological center and Tunisian technical centers in the food, agriculture, leather, shoe, textile, construction material, chemical and engineering industries and in the furniture, packing and packaging sectors, Nassar said.

The meeting asserted the importance of boosting Egyptian and Tunisian cooperation in diversified domains, he added.

On the other hand, Bahi said that his visit to Egypt reflects the keenness of the Tunisian government on furthering trade and economic ties with Egypt.

Bahi lauded the coordination between officials of the Egyptian and Tunisian trade ministries to handle any obstacles facing the trade flow between both countries.

Bahi said that the Tunisian government is working on increasing Tunisian exports to the Egyptian market.