Engineer Kamel El-Wazir, Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development and Minister of Industry and Transport, welcomed Mr. Ahmed Ali Bari, the Ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti in Cairo.
At the beginning of the meeting, the minister expressed his warm welcome to the ambassador, emphasising the deep bilateral relations between the two countries and Egypt's keenness to enhance them. He expressed Egypt's support for anything that serves the interests of both countries, in line with the directives of the leaderships of both nations to work on developing relations between the two brotherly countries. The Deputy Prime Minister also affirmed the deep historical ties and strong brotherly relations that bind Egypt and Djibouti, along with the mutual desire to strengthen cooperation between the two countries at various levels. He praised the significant development that has taken place in the relations between the two countries over the past years, particularly in the fields of economic and developmental cooperation. He reiterated Egypt's commitment to supporting development efforts in Djibouti by enhancing cooperation in various projects, providing technical support and training, and building capacity in different transport sectors, while benefiting from Egyptian expertise in various transport fields, especially maritime transport, logistics, and road and bridge construction.
For his part, Mr. Ahmed Ali Bari, the Ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti in Cairo, praised Egypt's successful experience in implementing infrastructure projects across all areas of land, rail, and maritime transport over the past few years, reflecting the tremendous progress in Egypt's infrastructure and transport sectors. He commended the connection of Egypt's sea and dry ports to the railway network. During the meeting, Engineer Kamel El-Wazir reviewed the existing and proposed areas of cooperation between the two countries in various transport sectors. The minister pointed out the importance of cooperation with Djibouti as it is one of the focus countries for establishing a logistics zone and is located on the maritime route for East African countries, aiming to develop and double Egyptian exports to Africa by 2025. The minister outlined investment opportunities in maritime transport, such as securing ships to serve Egyptian exports to Africa and establishing a maritime line between the ports of Safaga and Djibouti to enhance the provision of services for transporting goods for the proposed logistics zone, contributing to the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and the countries of the Horn of Africa.
A memorandum of understanding exists between the ports of Safaga and Djibouti, which is expected to facilitate the proposal and enhance port and maritime cooperation. Engineer Kamel El-Wazir expressed the ministry's readiness to cooperate with the Djiboutian Ministry of Transport in the field of infrastructure and the construction of roads and bridges, given Egypt's expertise and distinguished experience in this area. He proposed organising a visit to Egypt for officials from the Djiboutian Ministry of Transport to learn about the Egyptian experience, as well as a willingness to exchange expertise in this important field to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.
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At the end of the meeting, Ambassador Ahmed Ali Bari expressed his happiness with the meeting with His Excellency Engineer Kamel El-Wazir, Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development, Minister of Industry and Transport. He also confirmed his support, in his capacity as the Ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti in Cairo and the Permanent Representative of Djibouti to the Arab League, for all joint cooperation projects between the two countries, looking forward to further partnership and cooperation between the two brotherly nations in the upcoming period.
