Australian Amb.: Egypt-Australia Enjoy Strong Economic Relations

The Australian ambassador to Egypt Glenn Miles is one of the best diplomats who has enriched the momentum of relations between Egypt and Australia thanks to his great, sincere, and remarkable efforts.

During his term, mutual ties between the two countries regained vitality, and many companies have created avenues for economic cooperation and opened new horizons of partnership.

“SEE” managed to undergo a wide-ranging interview on 1st day of Eid al-Fitr with the Australian ambassador who has spared no time and information.

Here is the full excerpt of the interview:

70 years have passed since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cairo and Canberra, what are the efforts exerted by both sides to preserve these historic ties?

This year we are celebrating 70 years of the bilateral relationship. The embassy here in Cairo is not only Australia’s oldest diplomatic mission in the Middle East, but it is also one of the oldest Australian missions anywhere in the world, with a Trade Office first established in Cairo back in 1937.

Yet the relationship goes back even further. Australian troops were here in both the First and Second World Wars, and over 4000 Australians either lie or are commemorated here across 15 cemeteries in Egypt.

Today the relationship is broad. Around 100,000 Australians were either born in Egypt or are of Egyptian descent.

Almost 50,000 Australians visited Egypt last year, while we continue to have a strong trade relationship worth around $600 million a year.

We are also proud to be one of a small number of countries to have continuously served with the Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai.

What are the opportunities to enhance bilateral cooperation between both countries?

Australia and Egypt continue to have shared interests in regional peace and security, developing our trade relations, and expanding our people-to-people links.

Egypt is a leader in both the Arab League and in the African Union and continues to play an important role in regional peace and security.

Australia also plays critical roles in international fora and is a member of the G20 and APEC, amongst other global institutions.  So it’s important to work together where we can on shared interests.

Ministerial visits obviously assist greatly, and we were pleased with the Egyptian Minister of Immigration and Expatriates Affairs Nabila Makram's visit to Australia last year.

It’s also important to look to the future, and it has been wonderful to see over the last two years young Australians of Egyptian descent visiting Egypt as part of a program established by the Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs, with the aim of strengthening people-to-people linkages over the longer term.

Do you find the levels of economic and commercial relations satisfactory, and what are the ways to develop these levels and to increase the volume of Australian investments in Egypt?

To boost investment and trade, I believe we need to improve understanding of what each country has to offer.

Egypt is much more than the pyramids and has gone through major economic reform over recent years.  Two areas we see strong potential in are education and resource mining, given the recent reforms in both sectors.

At the same time, many Egyptians don’t realize that Australia is a global leader in agribusiness, tourism, resources, or financial services.  Or that we have the 13th largest economy in the world, with one of the highest per capita GDPs in the world.

We also remain one of the countries with one of the evenest distributions of income across its population.

Australians were also behind key inventions that we all use every day, from the refrigerator, the electric drill, the black box flight recorder, ultrasound, and even Wi-Fi internet technology - they are all Australian inventions.

So it’s important we get the message across that Australia is a dynamic, open, and globally integrated economy, with robust regulatory frameworks and transparent business processes.  We are also one of the easiest countries in the world to set up and operate a business.

What are the current business opportunities between both countries?

There are some notable Australian business success stories in Egypt.  For instance, the Centamin Gold Mine at Sukari, uses Australian mining expertise, while Mineral Technology is supplying the best of Australian technology and know-how for a mineral sands project on the North Coast.

The Australian engineering company, Worley also has won a number of consultancy contracts in Egypt, including a four‐year project management consultancy contract for the new Assiut Hydrocracking Complex.

On the agricultural side, Australia imports Egyptian oranges and construction material.  Importantly, we have just agreed to a protocol that will allow Egypt to export dates to Australia.

From our side, we export fava beans, wheat, and meat to Egypt. And there are clearly opportunities for further growth in trade and investment.

Could you give us more details about the educational cooperation between both countries?

Our international education sector is one of the largest in the world, worth over $20 billion a year and Australian universities are greatly interested in Egypt’s growing technical and higher education sector.

Many Australian universities visit Egypt over the last year, so we expect that this will lead to partnerships and further collaboration.

I followed your Excellency twitter account; you do a lot of efforts to bring back Australians to their homeland, how far these efforts have succeeded?

Over the last few months we have urged Australians visiting Egypt to return home and are pleased that many have done so.

To date, around 100 Australians have taken advantage of various charter flights from Cairo to return to Australia.

Over 300 Australians remain here, almost all longer-term residents, and we have encouraged them to ensure they have support mechanisms in place to enable them to wait until normal flights resume.

How much has the Australian economy been affected by Coronavirus, and will this crisis affect the economic cooperation between Egypt, Australia?

While the full economic effects from the virus remain uncertain, it is clear that the economic fall out will be significant, not just for Australia but globally.

In response to the crisis, over recent months the Australian Government has announced a number of measures, worth about $320 billion, to assist small businesses to get through the crisis and to help keep people in jobs.

On May 8, our Prime Minister, Mr. Scott Morrison, also announced a three-stage plan for the progressive relaxing of restrictions to allow for the reopening of the economy. The aim is to build on our strong health response to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure a COVID safe economy by July of this year.

Like Egypt, we are working with regional and global partners, as well as international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to minimize and respond to the economic impact.

On the bilateral level, it will have an impact, with tourism and bilateral visits.  Yet because our two-way trade is dominated by agricultural and food products, it is likely to have less of an impact on bilateral trade.

How do you see the Egyptian government's efforts in fighting Corona?

Like all countries, the Egyptian government has had to consider the best ways to protect Egyptians while attempting to mitigate the economic impact.

This is a difficult balancing act, but Egypt is doing well. We were also pleased that the government maintained a practical approach to its measures.  For instance allowing charter flights to operate on a regular basis enabling embassies to repatriate their citizens.