Financial cooperation between Egypt and Spain will increase from 175.8 million euros to reach 300 million euros after an exchange of letters between officials from both countries, the Egyptian ministry of international cooperation announced on Thursday. In a press conference held at the ministry's headquarters in Cairo, the Egyptian minister Sahar Nasr and Spain's ambassador to Egypt Arturo Avello Diez del Corral signed the letters with an extension till December 31, 2018. According to a ministry statement, both Egypt and Spain agreed on allocating the funds stipulated within the financial cooperation in fields in which Spain enjoys a high competitive advantage, such as railways, antiquities, power, desalination plants, telecommunications and information technology, infrastructure, ecosystem, airports and ports Nasr said that both sides agreed on designating a 50 million euro fund for a project that aims to develop power to railway lines connecting Cairo, Imbaba, Giza and Bortos as well as another line connecting Qalyub, Shbein El Qanater and Zagazig. The two parties also agreed on backing Egypt's suffering tourism sector with a sum of 7.5 million euros. The ministry's statement did not clarify whether the finance will be in form of loans or grants. Cairo and Madrid have been enjoying a close relationship after a series of meetings and signings of memorandums of understanding between the two sides. Both countries agreed during Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's vist to Spain in April 2015 to study the feasibility of a high-speed train that would run between the capital Cairo and upper Egypt's Luxor, with Spain agreeing to fund the study.
