President Al-Sisi is in Germany to attend the G20 Compact with Africa on 19-20 November. The visit comes in light of Egypt’s presidency of the African Union. Speaking about the visit, the German Ambassador to Egypt Cyrill Nunn, revealed that a €154m worth development agreement will be signed between Egypt and Germany during the visit. The agreement will cover areas like new and renewable energy, energy efficiency, water, solid waste management, and technical education.
The German Ambassador pointed out that the bilateral relations between both countries recorded steady growth. The two- way trade stood at €4.5bn. German tourists to Egypt made up the largest chunk of tourists from Europe. Last year, more than 1.8 million tourists visited Egypt. Lufthansa Group flies 60 full-fledged weekly flights to Egypt.
Regarding the debt swap programme, he added that the third tranche was under negotiations after the successful completion of the first tranche and near completion of the second tranche. The debt swap programme amounted to €240m, was distributed over three tranches. The recent reforms undertaken by Egypt has also attracted the interest of several German companies. In Egypt’s education sector also, Germany has marked its presence. The German Development Bank (KfW) has built about 900 schools in Egypt, and the country is proposing to set up a branch of the German International University of Applied Sciences (GIU AS) in the New Administrative Capital.
