Egyptian Parliament invited to set up friendship group with Belarus
MINSK, 1 May (BelTA) – Belarusian Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko met with Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Arab Republic of Egypt Hanafy El Gebaly in Cairo on 30 April, BelTA has learned.
«During the intensive talks with Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, both parties reaffirmed their commitment to developing bilateral relations in all areas, despite the instability in the world and illegitimate restrictions by third countries. We fully discussed the projects and the agenda that will shape our partnership in the coming years,» Roman Golovchenko said.
The Belarusian head of government also outlined the most promising areas of cooperation with Egypt. «We need to increase the volume of bilateral trade. There is a great demand for products in both countries. The task that we see in this regard is to get rid of numerous intermediaries and to ensure direct commercial relations between the consumer and the producer. This will make the goods more affordable. The second area is the relatively large projects in industry and logistics. For example, tractors. From the 1970s to the 2010s, we delivered more than 48,000 tractors to Egypt. In recent years, it has been dozens. Does this mean that the quality has worsened? No, it doesn’t. It has improved. This means that we must understand the reason for this situation and regain the momentum,» the prime minister noted. “This is an example that we can apply to other areas of activity as well. One of the flagship projects that we see as very promising is joint work to set up a grain hub in one of the free zones of Egypt. Together with the Egyptian government and business, we are building the economic structure of our interaction and count on the support of the Egyptian legislature in all our initiatives.»
Roman Golovchenko also elaborated on the cooperation between the parliaments of the two countries. «Just a few months ago, a new House of Representatives was elected in Belarus for the next five years. Until 2020 and before the reform in the Egyptian Parliament, we had a friendship group. There is no such group in the Egyptian Parliament today, but there is one in the Parliament of Belarus. Therefore, I would like to invite the Egyptian Parliament to return to the issue of a friendship group, which will help strengthen contacts between our countries,» he said.
Roman Golovchenko gave Hanafy El Gebaly a letter from the speaker of the House of Representatives of Belarus.
Photos by Pavel Orlovsky
