CAIRO: Egypt is looking to boost its relationship with fellow Nile Basin countries after years of wrangling over the course of the Nile Basin Initiative and the anger fomenting from upstream nations over Egypt's obstinate stance toward water issues. The country's Communications Minister Mohamed Salem on Tuesday said that cooperation and better communication between governments in the NBI are vital to the future stability of the region. He said in public comments that cooperation would “build strong relationships and provide economic aid to Nile Basin countries in Africa.” He continued to say that Egypt had agreed “to provide technical support for Nile Basin countries by transferring expertise through training, technical skill-building workshops and youth empowerment in information technology.” Salem added that Egypt was to also provide Nile Basin countries with “capacity building, technical cooperation and cultural communication enrichment.” It comes after a few hiccups emerged late last summer over the future of Nile water and Egypt's role. Ethiopia had been the most outspoken critic of Cairo, but in recent months the two sides have apparently come to an agreement that would allow the African country to develop and launch a series of dam projects, as long as they did not encroach on Egypt's water security, officials said. The minister also pointed out that Cairo would launch a large human development project for training, where the first phase “would involve delegations from Nile Basin countries, who would attend training courses at the National Institute for Communications and Information Technology.” Salem highlighted that the course would last seven to 10 days, where 20 trainees would attend from each of the 10 Nile Basin countries, adding that the goal of the long-term project was to train 3,000 professionals from Basin countries. The program will include visits to technological companies in Egypt in the Smart Village, as well as inspection of facilities, private centers and call centers. Salem said he would soon visit a number of Basin countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, to implement cooperation, partnership, cultural exchange and expertise programs. He added that an Egyptian mission would soon be sent to Ethiopia and South Sudan. The Egyptian minister said his country would provide a range of specialized programs in both the communications and information technology fields for Burundi, Eritrea and Rwanda. However, Burundian and Rwandan officials are skeptical over the Egyptian government's plan to increase its capacity building in the region, telling Bikyamasr.com that this sort of effort “is aimed at forcing upstream countries to not develop their own Nile projects. It could be seen as bribing.” BM
