Egypt's Minister of Trade and Industry Ahmed Samir Monday met Belarusian Deputy Minister of Industry Dmitry Kharitonchik and his accompanying delegation. They met within the activities of the third meeting of the joint working group for industrial cooperation between Egypt and Belarus. The meeting dealt with the position of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries and the latest developments in the negotiations of free trade agreement between Egypt and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. The minister said that it was agreed with the Minister of Trade of the Eurasian Economic Union to hold the next round of negotiations in the coming months in preparation for concluding the agreement soon. Samir highlighted the importance of intensifying mutual visits between Egypt and Belarus at the governmental and private levels to get acquainted with industrial capabilities, especially in light of the state's interest during the current period in deepening the manufacture of a large number of products that are used as raw material for important industries. Moreover, there are great opportunities to establish joint projects to manufacture these products in Egypt. Samir pointed out that there are great potentials in cooperation to benefit from natural and mineral resources and achieving added value from these extracts, referring to the opportunities and components of the automotive industry and its components in Egypt and the incentives provided by the state to encourage the localisation of this industry. The minister invited the Belarusian side to establish more joint investment projects in Egypt to export to this huge market, as well as to the markets of the European Union and Arab countries. Samir disclosed that the two sides could conclude equivalent deals that meet needs of each side to reduce dependence on hard currencies. On 17 and 18 July, Cairo hosted the third meeting of the joint working group for cooperation in the field of industry between Egypt and Belarus. The meetings of the joint working group, organized by Egypt Commercial Service at the Ministry of Trade and Industry tackled ways to enhance joint manufacturing of Belarusian heavy equipment, which includes trucks, loaders, tractors, and agricultural equipment in Egypt. Besides, to benefit from manufacturing capabilities available in factories of the Ministry of Military Production and the Arab Organization for Industrialization, in order to meet the needs of local markets and export to markets of Arab and African countries. Additionally, the two sides agreed on several implementation steps to achieve these goals during the coming period.
