ISLAMABAD – Pakistan and Egypt have reaffirmed the commitment to deepen their bilateral ties in all domains including trade, investment, security, agriculture and people to people contacts.
This came during a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Foreign Minister of Egypt Dr. Badr Abdelatty in Islamabad today.
Briefing newsmen at a joint press stakeout after the meeting, Ishaq Dar said the two sides held a focused discussion on increasing bilateral trade potential and strengthening Business to Business linkages.
He said Islamabad will share a comprehensive list of 250 businesses in key sectors of economy with Cairo to be facilitated and supported by Egypt to enhance bilateral commercial engagement.
He added that after six months of this initial list sharing, another list of 250 business entities will also be shared with Egypt under the same mechanism taking the total number of Pakistani businesses to 500 to be developed with Egypt’s collaboration.
The Deputy Prime Minister said a new Pak-Egypt Business Council will be established to institutionalize private sector cooperation and promote mutually beneficial commercial partnership between the two countries.
He said Pak-Egypt Business Forum will also be established soon to promote B2B cooperation.
On Education and people to people linkages, Ishaq Dar said Egypt has agreed to double the number of scholarships for Pakistani students at the renowned Al Azhar University, Cairo.
On his part, the Egyptian Foreign Minister highlighted and lauded the longstanding brotherly ties between Pakistan and Egypt.
He reiterated his country’s commitment to enhance and further deepen bilateral ties with Pakistan in all areas of mutual interest.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister expressed condolences over the loss of precious lives in recent incidents of terrorism in Pakistan.
He said his country is ready to offer all-out cooperation to Pakistan in the fields of agriculture, trade and investment, pharmaceuticals, public health and in countering extremism.
