India, Egypt discuss ways to promote economic ties

CAIRO: India's Ambassador to Egypt Navdeep Suri today met Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab and discussed bilateral relations, industrial cooperation and the measures to promote economic engagements.

"During the substantive meeting with PM Mahlab today we reviewed the ways to promote existing major economic engagements and to enhance trade and investment," the Ambassador told PTI.

"We also discussed what we can do to encourage investors to come to Egypt among other issues," said Suri, who describe the discussions as positive and very optimistic.

The India-Egyptian bilateral trade and investment has bloomed in the past four years, now registering USD 5 billion compared with USD 3 billion in 2010.

Egyptian exports to India have surged in value to USD 2.3 billion in 2014 compared to USD 1.6 billion in 2010, according to the Egyptian State Information Service (SIS).

Among top Egyptian exports to India are petroleum products, cotton, phosphates, coke and leather. In return, India has invested around USD 2.5 billion in Egypt, largely in textiles, SMEs and industry.