Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry Nevine Gamea revealed on Sunday that trade exchange with South Korea registered $1.89bn during the first 10 months of this year, an increase of 46.9% from the same period in 2020.
Gamea added that Egyptian exports for the Korean market achieved during this period an increase of 62.3%, reaching $531.5m, compared to $327.5m in the same period last year.
The most important items of trade exchange between the two countries include petroleum products, cement, marble, granite, aluminum, pharmaceutical products, home furnishings and ready-made clothes, in addition to cars, machinery, equipment, metro wagons and medical devices.
The minister pointed out that South Korea is one of Egypt’s most important trade partners in the east and southeast Asia region, and is an important destination for transferring advanced industrial expertise and technologies to the Egyptian industry.
She further noted that the current phase is witnessing an unprecedented momentum with regard to visits and high-level meetings between officials of the two countries.
The meeting dealt with ways and possibilities of enhancing cooperation between the two countries in fields of energy, environment, and localisation of electric cars in Egypt.
For his part, Korean Minister for Trade Yeo Han-koo expressed his country’s appreciation for the great success achieved by the Egyptian economic reform programme and its contribution to the economy achieving positive growth rates of 3.6% during the past year in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, the Korean government is keen to enhance cooperation with its Egyptian counterpart in fields of trade, investment, industry, energy and health, especially with regard to confronting the pandemic.
Han-koo stressed the importance of joint cooperation between the two countries in the fields of trade facilitation and supply chain development, with the aim of achieving economic recovery for both countries.
The Korean Minister for Trade called for the Egyptian government to support the Korean request submitted to Bureau International des Expositions to host Expo 2030 in Busan from May to October 2030.
