ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: A railway line linking Egypt with South Sudan and Uganda will be completed within a year. The announcement came after Egypt and Uganda agreed on certain joint projects, among which is the railway line, said Ahmed al-Semman, spokesman for Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. Sharaf and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni also agreed that Egypt will provide scholarships to Ugandan students in Egyptian universities and to do research in Zewail Scientific City, which will be launched soon. Sharaf and Museveni also discussed building small dams in Uganda for producing energy and digging wells to reach underground water, with a projected cost of U.S. $4.5 million. Sharaf also delivered a message from Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's ruling military council, to the Ugandan president congratulating him on his recent re-election and expressing “the Egyptian people's best wishes to him and the Ugandan people,” al-Semman added. “The Prime Minister invited Museveni to visit Egypt as the Uganda presidents invited Tantawi to visit his country,” he said.
