Egypt, S.Korea Sign MoU for Railways Cooperation

Noh Hyeong Ouk, South Korea's Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) paid a visit to Egypt on Feb 23-25.

During the visit, the South Korean Minister met with Kamel Al-Wazir, Minister of transportation of Egypt, and had deep discussion on bilateral cooperation in various areas including metro, railway, smart city, eco-friendly city.

Furthermore, the two ministers discussed strengthening cooperation and financing plan for the localization project of metro train for Cairo metro line 2 and 3.

After the meeting, the two ministers signed ‘Korea-Egypt railway cooperation MOU’ which aims to expand cooperation and further strengthen Korean companies’ competitiveness in implementing projects in Egypt.

Korean Minister Noh stressed that Korea will actively seek implementing candidate projects with Egypt, especially as Korea selected Egypt as a priority ODA partner during 2021/25.

The Minister pointed that this will allow Korean companies with high level of technologies to take part in tangible cooperation projects in various fields including smart city, smart transportation system.

Noh added that the success story of bilateral cooperation between the two countries could lead to mutual development cooperation model and joint partnership in 3rd country.

The Korean Minister, based on the Presidential summit in January, expressed Korea’s interest in contributing to Egypt’s national development strategy ‘vision 2030’, through joint cooperation project in the areas of ICT, sustainable energy, science technology, high education, in which Korea has strong advantages.

Furthermore, Noh proposed cooperation in eco-friendly and green infrastructure projects including hydrogen tram, Suez Canal tug boat LNG transformation, and desalination.

Minister Kamel stressed that Korea, with its advances and high technology, is Egypt’s best partner for railway cooperation, smart city, eco-friendly and green infrastructure projects, expressing hope to learn from Korea’s experience across various fields and develop further areas of mutual cooperation.

Korean Ambassador Hong said that Minister Noh’s visit comes as a follow up on Korean President Moon Jae-in visit to Egypt in January. Ambassador Hong expressed hope to further strengthen bilateral relations with Egypt, which is the largest Arab country in terms of population, and enjoys strategic geopolitical importance, has a strong economy and an attractive investment climate.