Minister of International Cooperation Naglaa Al-Ahwany met on Thursday with Navdeep Suri, India's ambassador to Egypt, to discuss ways to strengthen relations between Egypt and India, according to a ministry statement. During their meeting, both parties discussed cooperation in economic, commercial, and investment fields. The statement added that the main issue of discussion concerned the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC). It is considered to be the most essential means of cooperation between the two countries at this stage. According to the Indian embassy's website, ITEC is a bilateral assistance programme under the government of India. It offers training programmes in the fields of human resources, foreign languages, technology, software and management. Several Egyptian officials have benefited from the programme, which has taken over 350 Egyptian candidates to India since 2000. Discussions further involved possibilities for Egypt to benefit from the Indian experience in the area of small and medium industries. The statement highlighted that a large number of Indian companies have been operating in Egypt in the plastics, polyester, and raw materials production industries. The Indian ambassador stressed his country's willingness to increase the size of its investment in Egypt and their desire of entering new fields in the country. Suri also pointed out that he is looking forward to attending Egypt's economic summit, to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in March 2015. He added that the conference will open various doors for investment and mutual cooperation between Egypt and India. Another meeting was held on Thursday between Al-Ahwani and Greece's deputy foreign minister, Dimitris Kourkoulas, during his visit to Cairo. The meeting came within the framework of the eighth session of the Egyptian-Greek Joint Committee for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. The joint committee is to develop and encourage bilateral relations between both countries in several fields. On Thursday the committee signed a number of documents that uphold the fundamental legal framework needed to activate the cooperation between the two sides. The agreement covers the fields of chambers of commerce, sports, international exhibitions, manpower, and immigration, as well as fishing and fish farms. According to the statement the cooperation between the two countries can also be developed in various other fields, including maritime transport, investment, agriculture, higher education, tourism, air transport.
