Egypt seeks to increase economic cooperation with COMESA

CAIRO - 8 November 2020: Trade and Industry Minister Nevin Gamea discussed on Sunday with Secretary General of COMESA Chileshe Mpundu Kapwepwe ways of increasing Egypt's economic cooperation with the grouping.

The expanded meeting, held via video conference, was attended by Assistant Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs Tarek Shalabi and head of Trade Representation Authority Ahmed Maghawri.

Gamea said the political leadership and the Egyptian government are keen on honoring all obligations towards regional and international groupings and organizations to help them fulfil the goals for which they were set up.

She expressed Egypt's support of COMESA efforts against coronavirus that negatively affected trade exchange among countries as well as the movement of commodities.

She underlined the importance of the electronic platform the ministry set up lately to facilitate trade exchange with the grouping's states.

She said Egypt's trade with COMESA hit $3.9 billion in 2019, up 19.1 percent from 2018, adding that Egyptian exports to the grouping countries reached $2.8 billion in 2019 against $2.3 billion in 2018.

Kapwepwe underlined the important role played by Egypt to boost COMESA, saying Egypt's honoring of all obligations towards the grouping reflects the State's keenness on activating COMESA role in economic cooperation management mechanism.