Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Walid Elfiky, charge d'affaires at the Embassy of Egypt in Korea / Korea Times photo by Kwon Mee-yoo |
Envoy expects more Korea-Egypt cooperation in ICT, energy
By Kwon Mee-yoo
President Moon Jae-in will arrive in Egypt for a state visit today, with a handful of items to strengthen the strategic bilateral partnership. This is Moon's first visit to an African country since he was sworn in as President in May 2017.
"We are willing to receive President Moon Jae-in and the first lady of South Korea with an open heart and ready to use this visit as a springboard for new cooperation between the two countries," Walid Elfiky, charge d'affaires at the Embassy of Egypt in Korea, told The Korea Times, Monday.
Moon already met with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in New York during the United Nations General Assembly in 2018 and they held two phone conversations together in 2020. Moon planned to visit Egypt in March 2020, but the visit was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elfiky said up to 10 or more memorandums of understanding will be signed between the two countries, which shows the high level of cooperation.
"Now we are on the top of the list as the most important country in Africa for South Korea. And that entails that the amount of official development assistance (ODA) and concessional loans are going to be prioritized according to the Egyptian development needs," he said.
"Most notably, we are looking to cooperate with South Korea in specific areas, which is very important to us, like the development of rural areas. You had here the Saemaul Undong program in the 1970s, which innovated the social and economic status of your rural areas. And I think this is something very important that we'd like to learn from your expertise in this regard."
Moon will also make a visit to Cairo Metro Line 3, for which Korean company Hyundai Rotem supplies trains. The diplomat added that the company will also cooperate in the modernization of Egypt's rail system, such as the train line between Luxor and the High Dam.
The Korean company is also looking to export battle tanks to Egypt, and the envoy hinted at more defense industry cooperation.
"We possibly can have some joint ventures with the defense industry in Korea. We are not in a position to give details about this issue now, but the cooperation between us and South Korea is moving in the right direction. The most important thing is that South Korea is willing to engage with Egypt and we are willing at the same time to engage with South Korea economically and in all walks of life," Elfiky said.
Another sector in which the Egyptian diplomat saw potential for future cooperation is energy.
"Egypt discovered recently a lot of reserves of natural gas. South Korea adopted the initiative to go carbon neutral by the end of the decade. And in this transitional phase, South Korea needs clean sources of energy other than the renewable ones, like natural gas, specifically. Egypt and South Korea can cooperate in this," he said.
"We can export liquefied natural gas to Korea ― we already do so but not in big quantities. Maybe we are going to cooperate on this if South Korea is going to diversify its liquefied natural gas sourcing in order not to be dependent on only two countries."
Egypt is the host country for the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), transferring the presidency from last year's host, the U.K., and there is still more room for the two countries to join hands in tackling climate change. The Egyptian president designated Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry to lead the climate talks.
"Egypt is going to play a very important role to bridge the gap between the developed countries and the developing, African countries. South Korea through its initiatives to combat climate change and reach carbon neutrality will definitely play an influential role," he said.
"Starting from now till the end of this year. I'm sure that we are going to count on South Korea very much to help us to make this conference a big success for the world, not only for Egypt."
