Sisi, Desalegn Meeting Achieves Positive Economic Outcome

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn agreed on Thursday to expand the scope of economic cooperation between the two countries.

 

In a joint press conference, Sisi announced the establishment of an Egyptian industrial zone in Ethiopia and cooperation in the fields of agricultural investment, livestock, fish farms and health, as well as intensifying efforts to increase the volume of trade exchange.

 

“We discussed opportunities for increasing cooperation between the two countries, especially in light of the Egyptian private sector’s interest in increasing its investments in the Ethiopian market. We agreed to provide the possible facilities to support these investments,” he stated.

 

The Egyptian president also said that talks have touched on joint cooperation within the framework of the Nile Basin countries, saying: “The Nile Basin has tremendous resources and potential to make it a source of interdependence, construction and development, not conflict, given the prospects for cooperation in the areas of electricity, agriculture, industrialization, investment and trade, through the realization of the principle of mutual benefit.”

 

Sisi, however, expressed “great concern over the continuing stalemate” in the tripartite technical process to complete the agreed studies to determine the possible environmental, economic and social impacts of the Renaissance Dam on the downstream countries and the means to avoid them.

 

He emphasized that the three parties should act as quickly as possible to overcome the current stalemate and to ensure that the required studies are completed, in line with the Declaration of Principles signed in 2015.

 

“The interests of Egypt will not be jeopardized,” the Ethiopian prime minister said. “There has been a great deal of progress on the issue of the Renaissance Dam between the two countries over the past three years, since the Sisi took power,” he added.

 

“Differences always emerge in dialogues and discussions, and I think that Egyptian, Ethiopian and African wisdom can overcome these differences… for the sake of the two countries,” he stated.