Japan’s Ambassador to Egypt Masaki Noke said the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will be a new symbol of the Egyptian-Japanese friendship, noting Tokyo offered nearly $800 million as an aid to projects related to GEM.
Addressing a celebration on the occasion of the Japanese National Foundation Day on Monday, held at the Japanese Embassy in Cairo, Noke pointed to the technical cooperation between the two countries in maintaining and rehabilitating antiquities.
Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El Anany, Finance Minister Mohamed Maeit, and Supply Minister Ali Moselhei attended the event.
“Noke pointed out that Cairo and Tokyo cooperate in many economic, cultural, and social projects, like the Egyptian Japanese schools, the Egypt Japan University of Science & Technology, Dayrout water barrages, and Abu Rish Japanese hospital,” the embassy said in a statement.
The ambassador noted that 2019 was an outstanding year in the bilateral ties, as Japan hosted two international conferences; Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD7), the G20, during which President Abdel Fattah El Sisi visited Japan two times and held meetings with Premier Shinzo Abe.
He mentioned that 2020 would witness two major events which are the Tokyo Olympics in July and the opening of GEM in the fourth quarter of this year.
