By News Desk
Egypt and Pakistan have common strategic interests and face the same challenges, adding that people of both countries also share the same aspiration for peace, prosperity and development, said Egyptian Ambassador to Pakistan Ahmed Fadel Yacoub.
The Egyptian Ambassador said this while addressing a ceremony to celebrate Egypt’s National Day, the 67th anniversary of the 1952 Revolution; a revolution that ushered a new era not only in Egypt’s history, but also the history of the Arab World and the Middle East.
The event was attended by Minister for Privatization Mian Soormo, Ambassador of Turkmenistan Atadjan N. Movlamov, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and other government officials.
Since March 2018, the relations between Egypt and Pakistan witnessed important developments, he added. The exchange of delegates can be clearly manifested by the recent visit of the Grand Mufti of Egypt to Pakistan in March 2018, and the visit of HE General Zubair Hayat, the joint Chief of Staff to Egypt same year.
Addressing the gathering, he said over the past 67 years Egypt has successfully moved ahead, overcame various internal and external challenges, and today, Egypt is transforming itself yet again under the new leadership of President Abd El Fatah El Sisi.
A number of mega projects have been launched under the new leadership since 2014; projects that aim to improve Egypt’s economy and represent a new stage in its development, he added.
Some of these mega projects are; constructing a new administrative capital, which is located 45 kilometers East of Cairo.
It shall be inaugurated in 2020 and it shall be ready to host several million inhabitants as well as governmental and administrative authorities and is built according to the latest technology as a smart city, the foreign diplomat said.
Digging the new Suez Canal, which was inaugurated in August 2015, aims to increase the capacity of the historic strait. The Suez Canal Economic Zone, which offers a new investor-friendly business environment that, will be a blueprint for future development.
Talking about potential opportunities to enhance cooperation between Egypt and Pakistan, he said the relations between Egypt and Pakistan has a great potential to grow in all fields, and he believe that both have common strategic interests and face the same challenges and the two people share the same aspiration for peace prosperity and development.
From a historical perspective, he said, the relations between Egypt and Pakistan are historical and deeply-rooted. These relations go back even before the establishment of Pakistan. Qaid-e-Azam “Mohamad Ali Jinnah” paid a visit to Egypt in 1946 and met with the Egyptian Political Leaders and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar al Sharif.
Egypt was among the first countries to recognize Pakistan and to establish diplomatic relations in 1948. He said myriads of initiatives have been undertaken by the governments of Egypt and Pakistan to augment the bilateral cooperation in the realms of education, cultural and socio-economic.
In the field of cultural and educational cooperation, Egypt also provide 50 fully funded scholarships annually to Pakistani students to study in Al Azhar Alsharif, in addition to 50 seats for training Imams, scholars and preachers.
Furthermore, the Egyptian international Centre for Agriculture provides 10 scholarships for Pakistanis to be trained in Egypt on new methods in agriculture. Latterly, 30 Pakistani businessmen in the field of mango farming are travelling to Egypt to have a closer look on Egypt experience in this field.
Egypt provides scholarships to Pakistani doctors to attend short training courses in Egypt on combating tropical diseases. Recently a MoU was signed between the Arab Academy for Science Technology and Maritime Transport and the COMSATS University.
Additionally, NUML has extended an invitation for a group of Egyptian rectors of universities and academics to visit Pakistan before the end of this year. The ambassador further said people-to-people interaction between the two countries is enhanced, ‘‘30 Egyptian veterinarians are currently working in various Pakistani dairy farms in the vicinity of Lahore and they are sharing their experience with their Pakistani collogues to improve the milk production.’’
In this regard, several high-level visits of Egyptian officials to Pakistan and their counterparts have been arranged so far and this journey of exchange is continuing. A large delegation from Pakistan headed by the Pakistani Federal Minister of Planning visited Egypt in September 2018 to celebrate 70 years of establishing diplomatic relations with Egypt and they held a forum with officials, businessmen and representatives of several important institutions to discuss the means to enhance the bilateral relations between both countries. GNP