Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and his Romanian counterpart Nicolae Chuka chaired on Saturday an expanded discussion session to enhance joint cooperation in several fields. Madbouly welcomed his Romanian counterpart and the accompanying delegation, expressing Egypt's appreciation for this visit, the first of its kind in nearly two decades. Madbouly stressed on the importance of the visit and its timing, as it is a continuation of the discussions initiated by the leaders during their previous meetings, and it also represents a good opportunity to follow up on the files of bilateral relations, in order to strengthen ties in investment and trade. Madbouly indicated that the current visit of the Romanian Prime Minister will witness the signing of a number of memorandums of understanding and agreements, and that an economic forum for business is scheduled to be held Sunday. Madbouly said that Egypt is looking forward to convening the joint economic committee with Romanian during a press conference with his Romanian counterpart Nicolae Ciuca on Saturday. He also said that the committee will be held in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, this year, stressing that Egypt is taking all necessary measures to hold a businessmen forum between the two countries. He pointed out that Egypt is looking forward to more collective action to increase cooperation relations between the two countries, and to make better use of the agreements signed by the two countries to allow other countries to participate. He added that Egypt is part of the African Trade Agreement, and could allow Romanian companies to invest in Africa and enter the African market through this partnership and explained that the Egyptian business sector can invest in the European continent, stressing that all possible opportunities to strengthen relations with Romania are being explored He also discussed the possibility of Romania providing more quantities of wheat supplied to the Egyptian market, as well as enhancing Egyptian exports in the field of petrochemicals and fertilizers to the Romanian market. The two sides discussed the possibility of benefiting from Romania's location as a starting point for Egyptian products to the markets of Eastern Europe and the Baltic countries. Dr. Mostafa Madbouly indicated that the Egyptian government adopted the idea of joint manufacturing, and the Egyptian side followed up on the results of the meetings between the two sides in this regard. During the talks, the Romanian Prime Minister confirmed that this visit is a very important occasion to discuss what we can achieve at the level of priorities that achieve the aspirations of our people. He added: "For this reason, I decided to take with me today a large number of members of the Council of Ministers and Romanian officials in order to discuss these priorities with the Egyptian side, and among these files is the emphasis on increasing the rate of trade exchange and investments." The Romanian Prime Minister reviewed the role played by his country in making food commodities and agricultural crops available to many countries of the world since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, stressing that Ukraine has done everything in its power to ensure that supplies of these commodities to its neighbors and beneficiary countries do not stop. He pointed out that Romania attaches great importance to Egypt and its large market, especially since the volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached $1.1bn last year, stressing the importance of building on these levels and increasing them during the next stage.
