In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

Your Excellency and Dear Friend, Moon Jae-in,

President of the friendly Republic of Korea,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you today to Cairo an honored guest to Egypt and its people, wishing you a fruitful stay and productive outcomes during your visit. This comes within the framework of our mutual eagerness on consultation and exchanging views on various topics and issues of common interest. Such visit also promotes further enhanced relations of cooperation between Egypt and Korea, in a way that achieves common interests and contributes to attain development and welfare for our peoples. Moreover, it comes to follow up the outcome of my visit to Seoul, the Korean capital in 2016.

At the outset, I would like to express our appreciation for the achieved momentum maintained by the bilateral cooperation in various fields between the two countries, as well as our pride in the profound Egyptian-Korean relationships, which have witnessed commendable advance during the previous years. I would also like to emphasize the importance of promoting inclusive collaborative active partnership between the two countries in accordance with their potentials and capabilities and serving the interest of their peoples. During the talks, we have shared views on the importance of resuming political consultation mechanism between the two countries through Joint Ministerial Committee for Political, Economic and Technical Cooperation, headed by the two foreign ministers; the dialogue mechanism between the two ministries of finance; and Joint Trade Committee. This importance refers to their significance in promoting and boosting relationships of cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

I also expressed our desire to attract Korean companies and investments to Egypt, as well as our readiness to provide all necessary facilities to create an investment environment conducive to Korean investments, as well as to encourage an increase in Korean investments in major development and infrastructure projects, as well as projects in energy, mining, transportation, communications, and information technology. This is related to Egypt's economic reform process, the accomplishments made in this context, and the promising signs for Egypt's economic future. We also agreed on the importance of bolstering joint cooperation to support Egypt's vision of entering the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Furthermore, we agreed to strengthen coordination in this context through the establishment of a branch of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), or cooperation between the Ministries of Communications and Information Technology in the field of using industrial intelligence in government, particularly as the transition to the New Administrative Capital approaches and Egypt anticipates a massive developmental breakthrough in the near term, as in the successful Korean experience.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our discussions also reviewed the partnership opportunities that could take place between the Egyptian companies operating in Africa and the Korean companies in addition to the promotion for investment in Africa, especially in the field of infrastructure, while highlighting the tremendous opportunities provided by the implementation of the Continental Free Trade Zone as regards a significant increase in investment and commercial flows between the African countries and the international community.  We also exchanged views on the various international and regional issues of common interest, and agreed to coordinate the stances of both countries in the various international forums.

Our meeting today is the culmination for our joint efforts over the past period to push the bilateral cooperation forward between both countries, set an integrated strategic framework and a common vision for the various cooperation fields, as well as ways of pushing them forward in the coming period. This assures our joint political will in this concern and paves the way for a new stage of partnership that connects both countries.  

Mr. President,

In conclusion, allow me to welcome you again to Cairo, expressing my aspiration, that the coming period will witness more cooperation and coordination between Egypt and Korea in order to achieve prosperity for both our friendly peoples and generate more momentum for the comprehensive cooperative partnership, and for the extended friendship that gathers between our peoples and our countries.

Thank you