Egypt, Italy discuss boosting agricultural cooperation

CAIRO - 9 November 2017: Agriculture Minister Abdel Moneim El Banna said on Thursday that Egypt has been cooperating with Italy in different fields from a long time ago, especially in the agricultural field and its related activities.

These remarks were made during El Banna's meeting with Italian Ambassador in Cairo Giampaolo Cantini as they discussed enhancing cooperation in the agriculture sectors.

He added that one of the cooperation projects, in which the two countries participate, is the twinning project between the Agriculture Research Center and the European Union. The project comes as part of a program aiming at boosting Egyptian-European partnership with the most famous agricultural centers in Italy, France and Holland.

El Banna noted the Egyptian leadership is keen on promoting sustainable agriculture development, saying an international forum for agricultural investment will be held in coordination with the Food & Agriculture Organization Of The United Nation (FAO). He invited the Italian companies to take part in the forum.

He affirmed the importance of intensifying cooperation with Italy to increase trade exchange opportunities for agricultural crops between both countries, pointing out the importance of Trieste port as a gateway for Egyptian agricultural products into European countries. Similarly, he said, Egypt a gateway for Italian products to Africa.

Both sides agreed on increasing the chances of training for Egyptian researchers at the Italian agriculture research institutions in order to take advantage of the Italian experience in number of agriculture fields.