CAIRO, Sept 20, 2018(MENA) - Trade and Industry Minister Amr Nassar discussed with director general of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Claudia Warning, and her accompanying delegation the future of joint economic cooperation and means to activate bilateral cooperation programmes in the fields of trade, industry and small and medium-sized projects. An expanded session of talks was held here on Thursday, with several senior German and Egyptian officials attending. The talks touched on means of benefiting from the joint German cooperation projects in Egypt in the fields of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as upgrading vocational education and training, Nassar said. Nassar added that developing the SMEs tops the priorities of his ministry's plan of action and represents a key structure of the Egyptian economy. Egypt's exports to Germany have significantly increased by 9.5 per cent during the first half of 2018, recording 717 million euros, against 654.6 million euros in 2017, Nassar said. He added that Egypt's imports from Germany declined by 44 per cent during the first half of the current year, registering 1.4 billion euros, compared with 2.6 billion euros in the past year. Warning said that her country attaches great importance to boosting economic ties with Egypt, which is considered as one of Germany's most important economic and trade partners in the Middle East. She called for providing governmental support to all development cooperation projects that Germany is implementing in Egypt.
