Egyptian PM's visit to Sudan achieves fruitful results

English.news.cn, by Fayez el-Zaki Hassan, 2011-03-28

KHARTOUM, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf visited Sudan on Sunday and singed a series of agreements to boost bilateral ties.

Sharaf met with Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha in the Friendship Hall in Khartoum and inked nine agreements and memorandums of understanding, included a cooperation agreement between the Social Insurance Fund in Egypt and the Sudanese Chamber of Zakat (alms) and Development, as well as a framework agreement between Cairo University and the Sudanese Ministry of Higher Educations regarding the return of the mission of Cairo University-Khartoum Branch to operate in Sudan.

The two sides also singed two memorandums of understanding in the fields of administrative reforms and exchange of banking information and data.

The Egyptian prime minister said during the talks that it is important to double the volume of bilateral trade which stood at 622 million U.S. dollars in 2010.

He expressed hope that the Egyptian investments in Sudan would rise from the current figure of five billion dollars.

Egypt is the third largest investor in Sudan, Sharaf said, urging the Egyptian private sector to enter into joint investments in Sudan and expand fields of cooperation.

Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, for his part, said that Sudan and Egypt would focus in the coming period on food security projects, and working to establish companies in the vital fields, particularly "wheat, oil, sugar and meat" to achieve self- sufficiency of these strategic crops.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation and Planning Fayza Naga cited a number of barriers hampering the flow of commercial exchanges between the two countries, including the certificates of origins and transport.

Fayza Naga urged the Sudanese authorities to exempt the Egyptian companies operating in field of exportation from the Value Added Tax (VAT), resolve the problem of air transport, particularly regarding entry of the Egyptian aviation into the Sudanese air space, and activate the freedom of ownership for the Egyptians in Sudan.

Regarding the Nile water which concerns both Sudanese and Egyptian government, Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hussein al-Atfy held separate talks with his Sudanese counterpart Kamal Ali Mohamed.

Al-Atfy told reporters that his talks with his Sudanese counterpart reviewed the important role of the joint committee for developing the joint higher authority for the Nile.

He said the two countries were looking forward that the authority would play an important role in the coming period to face the challenges and reflect the visions of the two countries in this respect.

Editor: Mu Xuequan