The Egyptian government has discussed a number of potential joint development projects to be carried out with Jordan and Iraq, as agreed during a trilateral summit attended by the leaders of the three nations last week.
The summit, which was held in Amman on 25 August, addressed enhancing cooperation in all fields, especially in energy, power linkages, infrastructure, and food.
The projects proposed by the Egyptian side were put forward during a meeting headed by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and attended by seven other ministers, according to a cabinet statement released on Friday.
Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker presented a venture to establish an electrical interconnection line between the three countries with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts.
“It will help exchange electrical capacities and make use of the differences of the peak times in Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla presented a proposal to install a pipeline to transfer crude oil from Iraq to Jordan and Egypt to boost cooperation in the field of petroleum capabilities and to meet the needs of various projects in the three countries.
Supply Minister Ali Moselhi suggested cooperating in the field of digital transformation of the commodity support system, while Education Minister Tarek Shawki discussed opportunities for providing smart classes, and sharing the contents of Egypt’s digital library and various educational platforms, in addition to developing electronic exam systems.
Other ventures related to greenhouses, seed cultivation, agriculture, and utilizing digital transformation to help farmers were submitted during the meeting by Agricultural Minister El-Sayed El-Quseir.
During the meeting, Trade Minister Nevine Gamea said the states have opportunities to cooperate in different fields and to exchange goods, and to establish a station for sorting and packaging agricultural crops, in addition to cooperating in the construction industry.
The prime minister tasked the ministers with intensifying communications with their Jordanian and Iraqi counterparts to reach a consensus on a number of projects, to be presented to the three countries’ leaders.
“There is a historic chance embodied in the support of the political leadership in these countries for endeavors to achieve integration between the three nations,” he added.
During August’s summit, the three leaders urged fostering trilateral cooperation in terms of the economy, trade, and investment with the aim of establishing strategic integration.
It was attended by Jordan’s King Abdullah, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.
El-Sisi affirmed Egypt’s willingness to establish joint development projects with Iraq and Jordan within a strict timeframe.
The summit in Amman was the third such meeting between representatives of the three countries over the past two years; the first was held in Cairo in March 2019, and the second in New York in September of the same year.
Ahram Online
04/09/2020
