Serbia-Egypt economic cooperation commission meets

27 May 2010 | 17:08 | Source: Beta

BELGRADE -- One of Serbia's deputy PMs, Jovan Krkobabić, today spoke about a great potential for improvement of Serbia and Egypt’s economic cooperation.

He said that Egypt had up until the 1990's been Serbia’s most important partner among the developing countries.

Today's meeting of the Commission for Economic Cooperation between Serbia and Egypt, the first after 23 years, he noted, should be a cornerstone for renewal and further development of economic relations between the two countries.

The deputy PM praised good bilateral political relations and reminded of the recent visit of Serbian President Boris Tadić to Egypt.

The renewal of economic cooperation was initiated by Egyptian Trade and Industry Minister Mohamed Rachid during his visit to Serbia, said Krkobabić.

He also announced that several interstate agreements on cooperation in the fields of science, culture, transportation and tourism would be signed during the meeting.

Egyptian International Cooperation Minister Fayza Abul Naga, who is leading the state-business delegation on their official two-day visit to Serbia, stressed that there were “solid foundations” two reestablish the two countries’ economic ties.

She said that it would be good to first consider possibilities of joint investments as well as contracting businesses in the fields of agriculture, food industry, pharmaceutical and medical equipment industry and tourism.

Serbia and Egypt, Naga pointed out, should take advantage of their geographical position and agreements on free trade they have with a large number of countries.

After taking part in the same meeting today, Serbian Trade Minister Slobodan Milosavljević told reporters that Egypt's Orascom Telecom was interested in the upcoming privatization of Serbia's Telekom Srbija.

The Serbian government plans to sell a 40 percent stake in the company in a tender later this year.

As for the current total annual volume of trade between Serbia and Egypt, it was heard that it went from USD 20mn to about USD 50mn from 2005 until 2008, while it was at about USD 35mn in 2009.

Serbia mostly exports steel, copper, wood and pharmaceutical products to Egypt and imports rice, fresh fruit and vegetables.