(AFP File Photo)
President Mohamed Morsi will visit Brazil next month for a two-day visit focused on strengthening economic opportunities, his spokesperson Ehab Fahmy said.
Morsi will hold talks with Brazilian President Delma Rouseff, aimed at enhancing bilateral cooperation relations with Brazil.
“The visit is aimed to strengthen ties in the commercial, economic and industrial fields to attract more Brazilian investments,” Fahmy said to state-run news agency MENA.
Morsi’s trip to Brazil marks his final visit to a BRICS member state in recent months, with the president having already visited the four other member states, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Last month, Morsi said during his trip to India that he hoped Egypt will one day join the BRICS group.
The BRICS encompasses a bloc of the world’s large and growing economies, which are projected to overtake the current major global economies during the first half of the 21st century.
“I am hoping BRICS would one day become E-BRICS where E stands for Egypt. I hope E-BRICS will emerge when the economy starts to progress,” the president said last month, according to an Indian newspaper.
Morsi visited Russia last week, where his requests for a $2bn loan package and a wheat deal were rejected by Moscow.
However, the two countries reached a tentative understanding on economic cooperation in the near future.
Morsi’s frequent visits abroad have come in an attempt to address the ailing economy as the country’s foreign currency reserves dropped to $13.5bn.
The country is also struggling as the value of the Egyptian pound continues to fall against the US dollar, and the unemployment rate is on the rise.
Egypt has received several billion dollars’ worth of aid from a number of countries.
Qatar has promised Egypt $5bn in financial aid, whereas Libya has sent Egypt $2bn.
Earlier this year, the United States rewarded Egypt with $250m for Morsi’s economic reforms to meet preconditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In the meantime, the Egypt government is waiting for a $4.8bn loan package from the IMF, which it believes will alleviate the country’s economic crisis and pave the way for further international aid.
