Egypt to offer India Inc land in Suez Canal economic zone

New Delhi, January 27

Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the first Egyptian leader invited as Chief Guest for the Republic Day parade, offered to consider the possibility of allocating a special area for Indian industries in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCEZ).

“Egypt welcomes the flow of more Indian investments and promises to offer incentives and facilities. On its part, India underlines its support for this approach by encouraging its companies to make use of the available investment opportunities in Egypt,” said the joint statement. They also resolved to cooperate in the trade of commodities of strategic nature and of those required for food security in a manner that can help both sides to contain repercussions of the global food crisis. There was considerable emphasis on defence cooperation in addition to cooperation in green and sustainable development and at multilateral forums, health, space, cybersecurity, combating extremism and countering terrorism

The joint statement resolved to focus on cooperation between the defence industries and explore new initiatives for military-to-military engagements. The Joint Defence Committee (JDC) has not met for over three years, but there have been several military-level engagements, including the Cairo visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Egypt in September.

Sisi left for Egypt on Friday. “Bid farewell to President El-Sisi. Your visit has taken India-Egypt ties to a strategic partnership and opened a new chapter in bilateral ties,” tweeted MoS for External Affairs Rajkumar Ranjan Singh. India and Egypt elevated ties to a “strategic partnership” premised on the four pillars of political and security cooperation, cultural, scientific, and people-to-people contact.