Morsi to visit India to enhance bilateral trade relations

Cairo: Ahead of Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi’s maiden visit to India, a senior minister discussed ways to advance bilateral economic, trade and investment ties and opening up new avenues of commercial exchanges. Egyptian Industry and External Trade Minister Hatem Saleh on Sunday met Indian Ambassador to Egypt Navdeep Suri and discussed sectors to be covered and arrangements for a planned visit by Morsi to India in mid-March with a high-profile business delegation. [caption id=“attachment_648080” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi. AP[/caption] The meeting discussed as to how this visit would be offering a great opportunity for striking a partnership between the two countries’ businessmen and attracting more investments from India to the Egyptian market, especially in the fields of chemical, auto industries, information and communication technology (ICT), engineering projects and the spinning and weaving sector, Saleh said. The importance of reactivating the role of the joint business council especially after its reformation was also covered, he said. A joint trade committee will be meeting in Cairo next week to work out solutions for pending problems hampering the progress of commercial relations and weigh future trade and economic cooperation especially in small- and medium-sized enterprises, the minister said. The Indian ambassador expressed his country’s interest in fostering economic and trade ties with Egypt and expected that the visit by the Egyptian president would help bring the bilateral cooperation to wider horizons. Arrangements are being made for signing agreements with the Egyptian ICT, trade and external trade ministries on the transfer of know-how in the fields of IT and textile technology, he said. Trade exchange between the two countries reached $3.2 billion in the first nine months of 2012, according to informal figures. There are 320 Indian companies operating in the Egyptian market with investments worth some $500 million. PTI