India's investments in Egypt exceed $2.5 billion, the country's ambassador to Cairo, Navdeep Suri, has said. He made the comments on Tuesday at a function to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Kirlos Kar pump company in Egypt. Indians are represented in 50 projects across many sectors such as painting, industry, textile, chemicals, and information technology, he said. "New investments by Indians have taken place recently. The Indian government is offering Egyptians hundred of fellowships per year, particularly for engineers," the ambassador said. The Indian ambassador visited a new irrigation project in Aswan called Bendan with Egypt's irrigation minister, Mohamed Bahaeddin Saad. The project is built on an area of 3500 square metres. It was sponsored by an Egyptian-Indian partnership and cost LE54 million. It took two years to build and is expected to have a capacity of 16 cubic metres per second to irrigate ten thousand acres and will benefit three large villages. Partnership agreements between the two countries are expected to boost economic cooperation and investment. Egypt has traditionally been one of India's main trading partners in Africa. Indian exports to Egypt include cotton yarn and fabrics, machinery, transport equipment, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, tea, tobacco, sesame seeds and lentils. Those exports increased by 29.36 per cent this year, rising from $1.5 billion to $1.94 billion. India is Egypt's seventh largest trading partner. New Delhi's steep increase in imports has made it the second largest destination for Egypt's exports after Italy.
