Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait began, on Sunday, an official two-day visit to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
The visit aims to strengthen Egypt’s relations with its southerly neighbour, and provide support to the Sudanese government in top-priority files.
Maait is scheduled to meet with senior Sudanese officials, namely: the Governor of the Central Bank; the Ministers of Finance, Economic Planning, and Transport; the Secretary General of the Tax Office; the Director General of the Customs Authority; and the Director General of the Central Bureau of Statistics.
This is in addition to representatives of business organisations in Sudan, including the president of the Sudanese Businessmen and Employers Federation.
Maait said that his meetings with officials in Khartoum will include discussions on ways to strengthen economic relations between the two countries, and the Egyptian programme and policies that Sudan wishes to benefit from.
He pointed out that during those meetings, he will present the aspects of the economic and social reform programme implemented by the Egyptian Government. This includes the experience of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance in shifting to balancing programs and performance. The Minister will also address the partnership program between the public and private sectors, as well as financial inclusion policies, programs promoting social protection of low-income families, youth employment, and clean energy policies to encourage value-added products.
He explained that during the meetings he would invite Sudanese officials to visit Cairo to get closely acquainted with the Egyptian experience in economic reform and developing financial and monetary policies.
Maait stressed that Egypt’s Ministry of Finance will dedicate all its capabilities to transfer this experience to the Sudanese side. This is particularly the experience of dealing with international institutions and designing programmes for economic and social reform.
The minister expressed his happiness with visiting Sudan as an opportunity to shed light on the Egyptian leadership, government and people’s keenness on standing by their brothers in Sudan, especially with the reform and development change that this country is going through. Both countries have blood, language, religion, and life bonds, reflected in the great river Nile.
He pointed out that the Egyptian-Sudanese cooperation should be a model for Arab and African cooperation as well, especially that the two countries have enormous economic and human capabilities, which, if well utilized, can put them in a top position in the world. Egypt and Sudan have rich experiences that they should exchange and learn from to serve their peoples.
