Cyprus and Egypt are expected to offer joint winter tourism packages in order to attract visitors in the quieter months of the year, while a shipping agreement is also expected to be signed in the coming days.
Egyptian Minister of Transport Essam Sharaf said during his visit on Thursday and Friday that it was time for Cyprus and Egypt to upgrade their commercial and trade relations, and expressed certainty that the two countries could come up with several very good professional projects that will been a win-win situation for both.
Speaking after a meeting today in Nicosia with Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism George Lillikas, the Egyptian Minister, who is on an official visit to Cyprus, said that the cooperation between the two countries would prove beneficial for the two continents they belong to.
Lillikas said they had a constructive meeting, which covered issues mainly concerning tourism, for the development of which ‘the cooperation of air and maritime transport is necessary.’
‘We aspire to the cooperation between Cyprus, Egypt and Greece very soon, and the joint programme we had announced to attract tourists from Asia. The views we had exchanged for the development of a joint winter tourism package between the two countries will now be placed on a real basis with a specific implementation timeframe,’ he added.
Sharaf said they had ‘very fruitful discussions’ and that they talked about ‘several possibilities for cooperation that will have both on commerce and tourism because the common elements between these two is transportation.’
‘Tomorrow we will discuss in detail some transportation projects … and maybe the basic idea here is that they need the location of Cyprus within the European Union and they need the location of Egypt within the African continent and the Arab world, said Sharaf.
“It is time now to upgrade our commercial and trade relations to the very good level that we have in the diplomatic and political relations.’
The Egyptian Minister expressed certainty that ‘we can come up with several very good professional projects that will been a win-win situation for both us.’
