Egypt keen for Indian expertise to increase labour efficiency

Egypt is keen to utilise Indian expertise to increase its labour efficiency in small and medium scale industries, Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohammed Rashid has said.  

Rashid stressed the need to boost trade and investment relations between Egypt and India and coordinate both countries' stances on the WTO negotiations as well as efforts to mitigate the impact of global financial crisis. 

The Egyptian minister who met his Indian counterpart Anand Sharma yesterday in New Delhi discussed the economic relations between the two countries.

He also met with a number of representatives of Indian companies who have invested in Egypt.  

The discussion also focussed on the need to increase Indian investments in Egypt.

Rashid said that investments opportunities in Egypt were reviewed especially through the agreements signed with various world countries and the economic blocs that include COMESA, Arab Free Trade Agreement and Egyptian-European Partnership Agreement which allows Egyptian exports into the countries' markets. 

The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and India upped in 2008 and stood $3.540 billion against $3.490 billion in the previous year, according to India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry statistics. 

The trade balance between the two countries tilted in favour of Egypt in 2008, as Egyptian exports hit $1.930 billion last year at a 2.3 per cent increase. 

Egyptian imports from India slightly decreased in 2008 to reach $1.603 billion compared with $1.604 billion in 2007.