Egypt continues to present support on the bilateral level for COMESA countries

Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs Ibrahim Hassan said, "Egypt will go on in presenting technical support on the bilateral level for the COMESA countries besides its contribution as a full member in the group."

Hassan stated after his return from Nairobi, which hosted the COMESA summit, that, "Egypt has sent since 1980 till now nearly 3,400 experts in the fields of health, irrigation, education and engineering to COMESA countries in addition to receiving nearly 2,800 trainees from these countries."

He added, "Egypt adheres to activating trade movement among it and the COMESA countries, and all its initiatives and suggestions come out of this point and actually started a few months ago applying exemptions from the landing fees and ground service in airports on all airplanes from COMESA countries," clarifying that these fees were reaching in some cases $50,000.

He stated that this step had a positive effect on the exports and he gave an example of exports to Kenya as he said that the volume of exports to Kenya was reaching $7 million annually but reached $26 million through the last three months alone.