President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi arrived in
Germany on Sunday to participate in the Berlin Initiative for Partnership with
Africa, as well as to strengthen cooperation with the German business community
and attract investments.
The Egypt and Germany also agreed to launch
new agreements to double the German support for technical and basic education
in Egypt. They also agreed on establishing an alliance between the Ministry of
Higher Education and German Applied Universities.
It is worth mentioning that the issues of illegal immigration and the
confronting terrorism were one of the topics which were discussed during a
round table between President Sisi and German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, as
Egypt is one of the main forces supporting stability in the Middle East.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his country's keenness to
strengthen cooperation with Egypt in various fields, as well as supporting its
efforts in the pursuit of sustainable development.
In this report, we will discuss the German initiative for partnership with
Africa, as well as the most important issues raised on the sidelines of the
visit, especially boosting the economic cooperation between Egypt and Germany,
fight against terrorism and illegal immigration, and the partnership in the
field of technical and basic education.
First: The German Initiative for Partnership
with Africa under the «G20»
The German Initiative for Partnership with
Africa aims at intensifying cooperation in sustainable economic development,
encouraging investment, increasing the use of renewable energy, employing youth
and contributing to digital education for girls and women, in cooperation with
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the African Development
Bank.
The initiative includes measures to improve the financial environment in order
to encourage investment and ensure generating reliable tax revenues. The
experts who participated in Tanzania workshop in October 2017 agreed to
establish the African Academy for the Investigation of Financial and Tax Crimes
in Kenya, which aims to combat illegal financial flows.
In addition to the above, the German
Chancellor Angela Merkel invited the President Sisi to attend this summit for
the second time in recognition of Egypt's role in Africa. President Sisi also
delivered a speech on Egypt's vision of advancing and promoting development
efforts in Africa, especially as Egypt will head the African Union next year.
At the same time, President Sisi stressed at
the 2018 Summit that this Summit is expected to provide practical steps and
effective actions to the development process in Africa, working on growing
partnerships with international institutions and creating a favorable
environment for attracting investments in Africa in a sustainable way. This is
in addition to creating job opportunities to achieve people's hopes in finding
decent livelihoods and reducing the continent's problems.
Second: The most prominent files on the agenda
during the President’s visit
A number of issues were discussed by President
Sisi and Merkel. This can be illustrated as follows:
1- Intensifying economic cooperation and
attracting investments
The German Minister of Economic and Development Cooperation Gerd Muller said
that his country is keen on strengthening cooperation with Egypt in the field
of development, especially in view of the Egypt’s continental and regional
importance. He stressed that the successes achieved by Cairo during the past
period are evidences for Egypt’s desire to push forward development and reform.
The two sides agreed to enhance cooperation between the two countries in
Africa, including the promotion of development efforts in the societies and
countries of the continent. In this context, Africa is a continent of promising
opportunities for German companies, especially in the field of infrastructure,
which contributes to increasing economic and social development rates.
Egypt is the most important trading partner
for Germany in North Africa and the third in the Arab region. Cairo, currently,
needs economic cooperation, as well as attracting German investments to finance
a range of projects that are top priorities for leadership and society,
including infrastructure, Suez Canal development, land reclamation Production
and distribution of electricity, as well as the expansion of renewable energy
projects.
On the other hand, the two sides also
discussed the importance of extending cooperation to the areas of transport and
manufacturing, and workers training in small and medium enterprises as well as
military fields, in particular to support the combat capabilities and technical
forces of the Egyptian Navy to provide safe navigation.
Statistics show that 1,048 German companies
operate in Egypt as of July 31, 2017. The volume of trade in the same year
amounted to 5.82017 billion euros, compared with 5.3 billion euros in 2016. The
trade volume reached 2.78 billion dollars during the first seven months of
2018. Egyptian investments in Germany exceeded $46.1 million, while Egyptian
investments in Berlin are based on the fields of medicines, furniture, medical
equipment and tourism.
2. Combating terrorism and illegal immigration
Germany is suffering from a large number of immigrants, especially from the
Middle East and the Arab region. Thousands of people have poured into Europe
since the Arab Spring revolutions in 2011. The Austrian Chancellor and his
German counterpart opened their borders to migrants from Syria, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Benefiting from German experience in technical
and basic education
Egypt is seeking to expand the establishment
of German schools, which enjoy a good reputation due to its excellent
educational level. There are 7 German schools in Egypt, which the state wants
to increase to 10, and 50 new schools for technical education. The Egyptian
delegation also discussed with the German government what Egypt would offer to
promote such cooperation like land to establish new schools or grants to
develop and manage schools according to the German system.
"Egypt is in dire need of changing the
social outlook and improving the image of technical education, which Germany
calls dual education as equal to university education," said German
Ambassador to Cairo Julius Georg Luy.
In conclusion, the Egyptian-German talks during the visit of President Sisi to
Berlin resulted in a number of concessions, the most important of which are:
the agreement to increase the rate of economic investments between the two
countries, especially in some new fields such as renewable energy, as well as
cooperation with Egypt in issues of illegal immigration and combating
Terrorism, in addition to signing a number of agreements to benefit from the
German experience in the field of technical and basic education
