Egypt's Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade has held a series of meetings with foreign ambassadors in Cairo to discuss economic and investment issues, according to a statement from his ministry. Samir al-Sayyad met ambassadors from Italy, India, Russia and China earlier in the week for talks dealing with cooperation in small and medium enterprises and transferring modern technology to Egyptian industry. Al-Sayyad announced that coming years will see a "remarkable development" in economic relations between Egypt and China. He also expressed a wish for Egypt to increase industrial exports to Russia and resume discussion of a Free Trade Agreement with Russia, Belarus and Kazkhstan. Talks with Claudio Pacific from Italy centred on how to encourage Italian tourists back to Egypt and improving maritime transport to encourage trade with EU countries.
