Amr Yehia
Ambassador of Lithuania Artūras Gailinūs to Egypt said that cooperation between Egypt, Europe, and Lithuania in the economic field is long-standing, adding that cooperation between Lithuania and Egypt reached 144 million euros in 2023 and is increasing steadily.
Gailinūs made his remarks during a media briefing at the Lithuanian embassy in Cairo to present the business mission of his country planned for 11-15 September 2024 organized by Egyptian businesswomen, in cooperation with the Lithuanian embassy.
The press briefing was attended by Head of the Political and Economic Section Darius Nevulis at the Lithuanian embassy in Cairo, Commercial Second Secretary Ahmed El-Kordi from the Egyptian Commercial Service, and members of the business delegation Dr Dina Yacout, CEO of Conseil Consulting, Mrs. Nagla Akl, CEO & Marketing Manager of Benefit Agency for Marketing, and Mrs. Rania El Shimy, CEO of ACS Textiles and Garments.
Gailinūs highlighted the political, diplomatic, and economic breakthrough between the two countries and the strategic partnership with the European Union (EU), which is strongly supportive on the political level.
He added that the strategic partnership between the EU and Egypt signed by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and the commission president on 24 January will help to go deeper.
Gailinūs pointed out that every year Lithuania imports liquefied natural gas from Egypt. Both countries export and import food products, especially fruit exports. Moreover, cooperation in engineering technologies, engineering products, steel products, chemical products, and fertilizers is increasing in both directions.
“Real business should be done by the businesspeople, business to business. Women are more courageous to take risks and go for new challenges and new fields. In this case, it began as businesswomen-to-businesswomen networks, cooperation, and one-to-one. We worked for quite some time. The discussions were brewing. We did quite a lot in identifying the sectors that could be more prospective from business-to-business attitude,” noted Gailinūs.
Gailinūs highlighted that the focus areas for the Egyptian business delegation would be IT where the cooperation is going both deep and wide; secondly, cooperation in the intellectual field, namely between the universities and other institutions; and thirdly, transport and logistics.
“The obstacles to enhancing business between the two countries are lack of business information about local business, local business customs, local business traditions, and some stereotypes. Now with the government programmes and the opening of direct flights, where we are working very hard with the Egyptian minister for civil aviation, we would do more culturally to break those stereotypes,” said Gailinūs.
For his part, Ahmed El-Kordi from the Egyptian Commercial Service said that the visit is important in solving the asymmetric information and increasing the awareness of the Lithuanian market.
“The delegation composition is diverse in fields, such as IT, tourism, and logistics. Moreover, the visit could be the gateway for further discussions and increasing the bilateral trade relation, which is mounted to 140 million euros, which doesn’t represent the real potential of the two countries, especially from the export side,” added El-Kordi.
El-Kordi said “Lithuania has one of the fastest growing GDP per capita, which means higher purchasing power. As an Egyptian commercial service representative, I would like to invite any business community in Lithuania to experience the business community in Egypt.”
For her part, Dr Dina Yacout said “This delegation comes as a result of efforts that date back to September 2021 with the business and academic community in Lithuania, where I was able to find good potential of economic cooperation between both business landscapes.”
Yacout highlighted 10 businessmen and businesswomen representing 14 trade and industry sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, high education, FMCGs, furniture, consulting, real estate, textiles, and IT and cybersecurity will participate in the delegation.
This delegation aligns with Egypt’s vision of enhancing exports of Egypt, opening new markets, and encouraging entrepreneurs and the business community to go to new markets in addition to ICT market development.
Yacout added, “After making sure that we have a solid foundation and support from Mr Yahya Elwathik Bellah, the head of the Egyptian Commercial Services in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment, and Mr. Artūras Gailinūs, the Ambassador of Lithuania in Egypt, we decided to make a targeted business delegation to the highest-demand sectors in both countries.”
* Source: AhramOnline
