Romania and Egypt intend to strengthen their cooperation, including in the field of maritime transport, Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said, before participating in the Egypt-Romania Business Forum, together with his counterpart, Mostafa Madbouly, according to Agerpres.

„We want to consolidate economic cooperation and expand it, for example, on the maritime transport corridors, between the ports of Constanta and Alexandria”, said the head of the Romanian Government.

Ciuca showed, in his intervention, that „Romania has consolidated its economy”, which has grown eight times since 2002.

„Despite the challenges, large governmental and private investments, which reached almost 30 billion EUR last year, generated one of the largest economic growths in the European Union”, he added.

He spoke of the perspectives of collaboration between the two countries.

„The Government that I lead has instruments and public funds in four major areas that can constitute a development platform to which we invite you to contribute: the digitization of public services, the improvement of digital skills and their application in the private sector and ensuring connectivity through networks of high speed. But the framework we propose can be widened,” he said.

Thus, he evoked the fields of trade and industry, defense, agriculture, minerals, construction, infrastructure, water transport and management, biodiversity, conservation, IT&C and innovative technologies.

„Today I affirm with joy and certainty that Egypt is Romania’s first partner in the Middle East and on the African continent, in its entirety”, the Romanian Prime Minister pointed out.

He encouraged Egyptian companies to invest in Romania. „It is a good moment, considering the fact that in the near future we will be part of the OECD, an institution that will help us to align our administrative system and business environment with the rules of the strongest economies in the world”, added Nicolae Ciuca.

For his part, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly evoked the „strong and historical” ties between the two countries. He referred to the projects in the field of green energy in his state and spoke about the openness to collaborations. „Romanian companies can play an important role in this field,” he said.

At the end of the intervention of the two prime ministers, bilateral Memorandums of Understanding in the fields of natural gas, youth, scientific and technological cooperation were signed in their presence.

Agerpres