Gearing up Indo-Egyptian ties for new momentum

In an interview with the Egyptian Mail, Ambassador Gupte shares his insights on and also expectations for the future of relations between the two countries in the light of their deeply-rooted historical ties, the potentials they enjoy and new chances for growth. 

Ambassador Gupte expressed gratification over the marked growth trade between the two countries in the first six months of this year following a decline from $4.5 billion to $4.15 billion in 2019-2020 due to the pandemic crisis.

“Egypt’s exports have grown by 102% while India’s exports to Egypt have grown by 63%,” Ambassador Gupte told the Mail. So, he went on, whereas our total trade for the whole of last year was $4.15 billion, we have already reached $3.5 billion in the first six months of this year.

Should this growth be maintained, he said, we will certainly reach a new record in our bilateral trade this year. India, he added, “has a good share of Egypt’s total bilateral trade and at the same time we have about 50 large Indian companies, which have invested about 3.1 billion US dollars in Egypt.”

Such projections are no surprise as “Egypt is one of the very few countries in this region, which has been able to manage the Coronavirus pandemic in quite a good manner, the Indian envoy said. In this context, he made reference to the expectation that Egypt’s economic growth rate this year would be about 3.3%.

And next year, Ambassador Gupte said, the World Bank has predicted that it will grow at 5.2%. “So, Egypt as a stable political country with good economic growth and good management of the pandemic offers a good destination for investment and also to do business”.

Many of the Indian companies are vying to expand their investments in Egypt, Ambassador Gupte said. For instance, he went on, TCI Sanmar, which has invested $1.5 billion, is planning to invest another $400 million.

The diplomat expressed hope for the presence of Indian companies in several important areas in Egypt given their great expertise in these areas. In this regard, Gupte referred to the sectors of infrastructure, Information technology, and education. “We have many Indian companies, which are world-class, which are very good at building stadiums, railway tracks, Metro bridges, residential buildings.

“I find that in the information technology sector, India is a superpower. And finally, also in the education sector, because Egypt has a very large and young population, we have fairly good quality education in India, including in IT and scientific fields. We have no presence in each. So, these are the sectors I think where there are a lot of opportunities,” said the diplomate, who began his mission in Egypt only 7 months ago.

Ambassador Gupte indicated that he spent a good part of the time traveling around the country where he was fascinated by the scale and quality of new infrastructure projects.

“I must say that I’m really impressed by the scale at which the New Administrative Capital (that) has been built. And the overall plans that are there also, I was really quite taken aback to see residential towers in Alamain and the development of the entire coastline. So, the infrastructure development in Egypt is certainly very strong.”

He sees that India’s advancement in the services sector can fit well in the context of Egypt’s strategy to develop infrastructure.

The New Delhi envoy believes that many factors can help India and Egypt consolidate their relations. “Both India and Egypt are two of the greatest ancient civilizations. And both peoples or both countries have similar cultures. They are friendly, they are warm, they like their families, and there is a lot of goodwill for India that I find in Egypt, among the politicians and among the businessmen and ordinary people.”

Since both India and Egypt are developing countries, “we can learn from each other, and we can share best practices,” Ambassador Gupte said.

“So, India’s developmental experience in many areas can be of relevance to Egypt, and also Egypt’s achievements can be relevant for India,” he added.

“So, I think we need to intensify the contacts between our ministries, our thinktanks, between scientists. There is a lot that was happening in the past but because of the pandemic, it has stopped. So now we need to revive (such exchanges),” he said.

He also suggested the necessity to diversify our trade. “There are some trade barriers especially in the field of agriculture and pharmaceuticals, which need to be removed. For instance in wheat. Although India produces a lot of wheat and Egypt imports a lot of wheat there is a ban on imports of Indian wheat,” he said.

“Fortunately, we have a lot of the mechanisms in place; Joint Business Council, Joint Working Group, Joint Committee on Trade and as the pandemic situation is sort of under control in India and Egypt, we must have more visits and more exchange of delegates,” he said.

Recalling his recent interaction with Suez Canal Economic Zone, the Indian envoy says that the more investments can be attracted from India. So, I think there are good prospects for growth and in terms of recent initiatives, we have done a lot of video conferences,” he said, adding that he has also interacted with Indian companies and with chambers of commerce by video conference. He had also conducted a business seminar at a high level between the two ministries of trade and commerce.

“Another interesting feature is that in the last three months, we had five large business delegations, from our export promotion councils visiting Egypt. It was their first visit outside India since the pandemic. We are now taking part in a large way in the Egypt Defence Expo (EDEX), where many of our defence production companies are coming to take part,” he said.

The diplomat also sees Egypt’s endeavour to become a regional energy hub as a good chance for wider cooperation especially in the field of renewable energy. “I think there is great scope for co-operation in solar energy, wind energy, battery storage, he said adding that COP27 which will be hosted by Egypt can be a good chance for both countries to share views, expertise, and technology.

Turning to the hazards of climate change, a lot of it is because of endless consumption or wasteful consumption, Gupte recalled the famous saying by Mahatma Gandhi: “There is enough in the world for everyone’s needs but not enough for everyone’s greed”.

As the world has just celebrated non-violence day, Ambassador Gupte sees Gandhi’s principles are very relevant to today’s world which is full of conflicts.

After emerging victorious from its fight against coronavirus, India had lessons to remember. One important such lesson, he says, is the necessity to be self-reliant, but at the same time, he adds, we learned that the entire world is one family.