The Minister of Trade and Industry, Amr Nassar, announced on Tuesday that an Egyptian trade delegation will be dispatched to Kazakhstan next March, in order to review the opportunities of the joint economic cooperation. The delegation will be headed by the minister's assistant, Ahmed Taha, and will include representatives of 31 Egyptian companies working in the fields of engineering, food industries, construction materials, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and furniture, as well as representatives of the banking sector and the Suez Canal Economic Zone. The visit will also target boosting the cooperation between the private sector of both countries, according to Nassar, as well as discussing the opportunities for the industrial integration between Egypt and Kazakhstan, especially that the two countries have a great industrial potential. The minister's remarks followed a meeting with Arman Issagaliyev, Kazakhstan's ambassador in Cairo, where they discussed the future of the economic cooperation, and the ways to enhance the intra-trade, joint investments, and a number of common-interest issues between the two countries. During the meeting, Nassar urged Issagaliyev to implement the free trade agreement between Egypt and the Eurasian states as soon as possible, and increase the trade missions between the two sides, including intensifying their participation in specialised international exhibitions held in both countries. The volume of the trade exchange between Cairo and Astana reached $80m in 2018, an increase of 29%, compared to $62m in 2017, Nassar said, pointing out that Egypt's share represents 80% of the total trade exchange between the two countries. For his part, Issagaliyev said that Egypt is a key partner to Kazakhstan in the Arab world, and the biggest trade partner in Africa, noting that the upcoming visit of the Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev by the end of 2019 to Cairo will tackle enhancing the economic partnership with his country. "The Egyptian market is a vital outlet of the Kazakh exports in Africa and the Middle East," Issagaliyev stated, urging Cairo to resume talks to import the Kazakh wheat.
