India and Egypt sign seven pacts to boost ties

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shakes hands with Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi after a meeting in New Delhi yesterday.

Agencies/New Delhi

India and Egypt yesterday signed seven pacts on areas including information technology and cyber security after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.

The Egyptian leader, accompanied by several ministers and a business delegation, arrived in New Delhi on a three-day visit yesterday night.

“President Mursi and I have just concluded extensive and very productive discussions,” Singh said at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

“We agreed that his visit, at an important juncture for Egypt, offers us a great opportunity to renew our relationship and take it to a different level of engagement and co-operation.”

Ministers and officials from both sides signed seven pacts that envisage co-operation in IT and communications, cyber security, art and culture, vocational training and small industries after the talks. Another agreement to provide solar energy to households in an Egyptian village was also signed.

The agreements provide for setting up a centre of excellence in Information Technology at Cairo’s Al-Azhar University.

The centre will see India provide the human resources, as well as the hardware and software to set up a facility to train up to 500 students a year. Egypt will facilitate the establishment of the centre including provision of space and logistical support.

Egypt pushed for India to join its ambitious Suez Canal corridor project.

Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president who came to India after a day-long visit to Pakistan, said he welcomed India’s contribution in the project that is aimed to become a bridge connecting Africa with Asia.

Speaking to the media after the meeting with Singh, Mursi said the corridor project would make Egypt a hub for India’s exports to the West and boost Indian exports to $200bn.

The 190km corridor project aims to turn the Suez Canal banks into a global economic zone and earn billions of dollars in revenue for Egypt. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has offered to invest €1bn in the project.

Mursi, who is facing troubles back home with a court ordering cancellation of the April 22 parliamentary elections, thanked India and its people for support for his country after the Arab Spring revolution two years ago.