Egypt, France talks on oil, gas, petrochemicals cooperation
French Minister delegate for Industry, Nicole Fontaine, expressed Sunday her country's interest in increasing cooperation with Egypt in the various fields.
Addressing a joint press conference with Egyptian Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy following official talks between the two sides, Fontaine hailed attractive investment conditions in Egypt for French companies and the qualified Egyptian cadres in the fields of petrochemicals.
Fahmi said the talks covered means of stepping up bilateral cooperation over the next stage, especially in the fields of oil and natural gas exploration.
The talks, he added, also covered participation of French companies in national petrochemical plans and fertilizers projects.
The Egyptian official pointed out that Egypt would start to export natural gas to France in 2003 to meet 10 percent of France's needs.
The French Minister had arrived in Cairo late Saturday on a four-day visit to Egypt for talks with Egyptian officials.
Fontaine will hold talks with Ministers of Industry, Electricity, Communications and Foreign Trade on furthering cooperation between Egypt and France.
On the other hand, Communications Minister Ahmed Nazif and French Industry Minister Nicole Fontaine signed a memorandum of understanding in the information technology (IT) and telecommunications fields.
After the signing ceremony, Nazif said the memo aims at developing cooperation in the IT and communications fields.
He added that the memo provided for activating cooperation in the postal field.
Later in the day, Fontaine and the Minister of Communications and Information Technology (IT) Ahmed Nazif signed a memorandum of understanding for boosting bilateral cooperation between the two countries through information exchange.
Following the signing ceremony, Minister Nazif said that the memo would also promote bilateral cooperation in training and the development of e-commerce.
The French Minister expressed her country's keenness on taking part in modernization projects, in which the Ministry of Communications and IT plays a leading role.