Egypt, Russia to sign 3 cooperation deals Tuesday

Egypt and Russia will sign on Tuesday three cooperation agreements at the end of their joint committee that kicked off here on Sunday at the level of experts.

The agreements cover setting up a Russian industrial zone in eastern Port Said and finding mechanism to finance Russian projects expected to be set up at the zone.

The agreements were announced at the Egyptian-Russian business forum that began here on Monday with the participation of representatives of 100 Russian companies and more than 60 Egyptian companies.

This is the biggest Russian delegation to visit Egypt, a move that mirrors growing interest by both countries to increase trade exchange, said head of the Egyptian side to the Egyptian-Russian business council Ahmed el Wakil.

He called for activating cooperation agreements between agricultural quarantines and customs authorities in both countries to push forward trade exchange as well as accelerating the signing of a Free Trade Agreement between Egypt and the Euroasian economic group.

The head of the Russian side Shamil Orloff said enhancing confidence between the Egyptian and Russian sides is a necessity to promote trade between the two sides and this has been already realized thanks to growing political relations between them.

He hoped trade exchange between the two countries would be upped to 5.7 billion dollars annually.

He noted that there are many investment opportunities in the pharmaceutical sector as it can bring 2.5 billion dollars in profits annually.