Cairo- Egyptian Local Development Minister Mahmoud Sharawi had talks on Friday with Indian Ambassador in Cairo Ajit Gupte on means of boosting co-opeartion in the field of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to provide a fixed income for families in most needy villages.
The meeting was also attended by a number of the Local Development Ministry’s officials and representatives of the Indian embassy in Cairo.
During the meeting, Sharawi lauded the level of co-operation between the two sides over the past years, particularly in the local development and decentralization domains.
The minister also underlined the depth of the Egyptian-Indian relations that dated back to the era of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser and Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
These relations have greatly developed during the era of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the political, economic and cultural levels.
The minister also posted the Indian ambassador on the key role played by the Local Development Center in Giza’s Sakkara area.
The minister also reviewed with amb. Gupte, the possibility of exchanging expertise and enhancing co-operation with specialized institutes in India, particularly the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA).
The talks also took up “Decent Life” initiative endorsed by President Sisi to improve the quality of life in rural areas.
For his part, the Indian ambassador expressed his keenness on consolidating ties between Cairo and New Delhi.
The two sides also discussed means of benefiting from Ayadi Masreya Foundation (AMF) that was launched by the Local Development Ministry several weeks ago to back the handicraft and heritage industries in Egypt’s villages.
AMF is an Egyptian Platform working to represent and empower small scale producers in handicraft and agricultural sector through heritage preservation and access to global market and socio-economic justice.
