Egypt has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Korea's Hyundai Rotem to localise the train industry. Egypt's Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, and National Egyptian Railway Industries Company (NERIC)have signed the agreement with the South Korean company The signing ceremony was attended by: Minister of Transportation Kamel El-Wazir; Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said; South Korean Ambassador to Egypt Hong Jin-Wook; and Essam Wali, Chairperson of the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT). The MoU also covers the transfer of South Korean technology, and comes as a result of discussions between Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Yong-Bae Lee, Chairperson and CEO of Hyundai Rotem. The discussions were aimed at facilitating the cooperation between Hyundai Rotem and NERIC to help Egypt localise the railways industry. El-Wazir confirmed that the signature comes as part of the Egyptian leadership's directives to localise the manufacture of transportation units to a high quality. This will also see Egypt provide new trains for the various metro lines over the next six years. The production will be undertaken in cooperation with Egyptian companies to settle this industry in the country. "We are proud to start today the first real manufacturing steps for the moving units of the metro and the means of electric traction with a local manufacturing percentage," El-Wazir said, "President Al-Sisi directed for the localisation rate in local industry to reach up to 25% within two years, and 50% of the localisation after four years, and then up to 75% over six years." The minister also said that the MoU's signing represents a great leap in localising the railway industry in Egypt. This comes particularly with the volume of national projects that the state is implementing in the field of modernisation and development of transportation in the metro and electric traction, indicating that this cooperation.
