Egypt’s Ambassador to Brussels Badr Abdel Aty met with Maciej Globusky — the Director of the Office of the European Commissioner for Agriculture — and Antoine Cassel — the Director of the Office of the European Commissioner for Labour and Social Affairs.
The meeting tackled ways to strengthen cooperation between Egypt and the EU in the field of agriculture, particularly with regard to raising the capacity to deal with food crises, use technology to develop agricultural systems, raising the capacity of self-sufficiency, and cooperation in the areas of training and capacity building in the agricultural sector.
Abdel Aty also discussed ways to counter the negative repercussions of the Ukrainian crisis on the global and Egyptian economies in terms of food security, including the EU’s allocation of €100m to Egypt for its food security assistance.
Furthermore, the ambassador was keen to review the ongoing economic developments in Egypt as well as the implementation of an ambitious plan to develop the agricultural sector in a way that would help address food and water security issues and develop thousands of Egyptian villages at all levels, highlighting the Decent Life Presidential Initiative and its results.
Abdel-Aty also discussed with Cassel opportunities for cooperation between the two sides in the field of capacity building and technical and vocational education to prepare skilled and trained workers in line with the needs of the labour market.
Additionally, he reviewed the Egyptian state’s efforts to promote social rights, improve citizens’ standard of living, and provide them with basic services, highlighting the launch of a social insurance umbrella to enable citizens to bear the burdens resulting from Egypt’s launch of economic reform policies in 2016.
He also reviewed various social initiatives launched by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, including the Takaful wi Karama Initiative and the transfer of squatters to new cities.
Moreover, Abdel Aty spoke about the government’s efforts to empower young people economically and socially by expanding job creation and establishing giant development projects in the country and agreed to strengthen cooperation in supporting vocational training and technical education.
