Egypt will launch a mobile application for tourists that will help them plan their holidays more efficiently, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt Khaled El-Anany told Interfax-Ukraine.
“Accommodation, transport services, and offers for a wide variety of recreation: museums, activities will be combined on one platform,” the minister said.
According to him, the mobile application meets the trends of post-visual reality, when people prefer to relax in a more secluded way and independently plan their pastime, choosing and paying for services using the platform.
The minister said the mobile application will be launched within three months.
Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant has entered into a cooperation agreement with the official representative of the Egyptian National Railways for the modernization of 55 locomotives of the AD Tranz series, the enterprise’s press service said on Facebook.
“The modernization will be carried out both at the facilities of our plant and at the facilities of Egyptian colleagues and partners who own locomotive repair plants in Egypt,” the report said, citing Director of Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant Serhiy Roi.
According to him, a deep modernization of locomotives will be carried out with the installation of new diesel engines, new power and support equipment and microprocessor control systems, which will significantly improve the performance of locomotives and reduce the cost of their service.
“The partnership is planned for a long-term, since the declared number of locomotives in the future can be increased to 200 units,” Roi said.
The agreement, the value of which has not been disclosed, also provides for further maintenance of locomotives, in particular, the creation of a service department in Egypt, where representatives of Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant will carry out engineering work for servicing locomotives.
The report notes that Egyptian locomotives are “younger” than those operated in the post-Soviet space and those the plant previously dealt with – they were produced in 1996-2010.
Mykolaiv Locomotive Repair Plant, established in 2010, specializes in maintenance, minor repairs and overhaul of locomotives, as well as other locomotive parts and assemblies.
The restoration of the Egypt-Ukraine Business Council will be on the agenda of the intergovernmental bilateral meeting in June, which will be held in Egypt, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt Ayman Ahmed Mokhtar Elgammal has said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that the Egypt-Ukraine Business Council will consist of representatives of Ukrainian and Egyptian business.
The Ambassador said that the Chambers of Commerce of both countries will present participants who are interested and have experience in doing business both in Ukraine and in Egypt. The council’s activities will also be aimed at promoting business and bilateral investments, holding various sectoral specialized exhibitions in both countries. Thus, since the council includes both sides, it will be clearer for business how to invest in Ukraine, Elgammal said.
The ambassador recalled that the Egypt-Ukraine Business Council was created ten years ago, but has been inactive in recent years.
The focus of activity (of the council) is not limited to investments. All types of business activities, investments, co-production, joint ventures and projects depending on the sector – everything will be promoted by this council, Elgammal said.
He is convinced that obtaining information on investment opportunities in Ukraine and Egypt through the council will be much faster and easier than through government institutions in both countries.
Ukraine and Egypt are discussing the possibility of joint production between enterprises and export to the African market, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt Ayman Ahmed Mokhtar Elgammal has said in an exclusive interview to Interfax-Ukraine.
Egypt is a member of a number of free trade areas in African and Arab countries, he said. The official added that, for example, they invited the Ukrainian government to invest in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone).
According to the ambassador, Ukrainian enterprises will be able to manufacture products in Egypt and benefit from Egyptian free trade agreements in the region.
This will also be the topic of a meeting of the intergovernmental technical committee in June, he added.
At the same time, he clarified that so far no proposals have been received from Ukrainian companies on investments in SCZone.
At the same time, various organizations in Ukraine, in particular Ukrmashbud and its member companies, have asked to open their representative offices in Egypt for the joint production of high-tech goods of heavy engineering, the ambassador said.
Egypt, according to forecasts, in 2021 will be visited by about 8 million foreign tourists, of which about 1.5 million are Ukrainians, Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt Ayman Ahmed Mokhtar Elgammal told Interfax-Ukraine in an exclusive interview.
“Basically, Ukrainians choose Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, beach hotels, from where they go for a maximum one-day educational trip – to see the pyramids and the main attractions of Cairo,” he said.
According to the ambassador, other tourist products are actively offered to Ukrainians.
“We offer to visit a variety of historical attractions, four-day cruises on the Nile from Luxor to Aswan, new areas for water sports, windsurfing. In addition, in the west of the desert there are unique mineral waters and salt lakes, useful for recovery. This year, Ukrainians began to convert attention to such attractions,” the diplomat said.
Elgammal also noted the growing demand for a longer stay of Ukrainians in Egypt. “Egypt is an excellent offer for Ukrainian employees working ‘remotely’: the weather is good all year round, it is close and easy to get to. And we stimulate such tourists: we provide a 20% discount on accommodation for a long period of time, 20 days or more,” he said.
The ambassador named some of the partnership programs to attract new Ukrainian tourists. “We have already launched joint campaigns with tour operators, which run until October 2021. We also have a flight incentive program for airlines, which includes visa facilitation, 50% discount on landing fees, accommodation, and 20% discount on ground handling fees. In addition, we have reduced fuel prices by $0.15 per gallon until the end of 2021,” said Elgammal.
Egypt has moved from the importers of natural gas to the category of producers due to the discovery of deposits on the Mediterranean shelf, therefore one of the promising areas of cooperation is the export of gas to Ukraine through barter deals for grain and other products, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt Ayman Ahmed Mokhtar Elgammal has said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine. He said this will improve the trade balance – there will be no need to attract foreign currency into the transaction, and will also allow to align the import/export balance, to correct the existing bias towards Ukraine.
At the same time, Ukrainian companies are encouraged to invest in renewable energy in Egypt. However, there are no specific agreements yet, the ambassador added.
At the same time, the official stressed that the Egyptian side is interested in investing in Ukraine.
The main interest of Egyptian companies in projects of agricultural production and animal husbandry, but projects in the energy sector are not yet discussed, he said.
