By Mohamed Attia
Minister of Civil Aviation, Samah El-Hefny, met with Alhaji Fanday Turay, Minister of Transport and Aviation of the Republic of Sierra Leone, to discuss avenues of coـoperation in the fields of training, maintenance, air navigation, aviation services, and the exchange of expertise.
The meeting was attended by Sadiq Silla, Ambassador of the Republic of Sierra Leone to Egypt; Jak Massaquoi, General Manager of the Sierra Leone Airport Authority; as well as the accompanying delegation and senior officials from both ministries.
The meeting witnessed discussions on avenues of mutual co-operation in several vital fields, most notably the development of airport infrastructure and the enhancement of training and qualification programmes for administrative and technical personnel.
The two sides also discussed ways to update and expand the scope of the previously signed Memorandum of Understanding, in line with regional and international developments in the civil aviation industry, and to support the achievement of mutual development goals.
At the beginning of the meeting, Minister el-Hefny welcomed his Sierra Leonean counterpart and the accompanying delegation. He praised the deepening of Egyptian–Sierra Leonean relations, which were recently strengthened by the visit of Sierra Leone’s President to Egypt last March.
El-Hefny highlighted Egypt’s keenness to enhance co-operation with African countries across various fields, particularly the civil aviation sector.
He added that the Ministry of Civil Aviation pays great attention to providing all forms of training and technical support to its brothers in the Republic of Sierra Leone, by leveraging the advanced capabilities of the Egyptian Aviation Academy and EgyptAir Training Academy.
El-Hefny pointed out that the Egyptian-African co-operation in the air transportation sector doesn’t include only the technical aspects but also supporting the efforts of comprehensive development, through air link, exchanging expertise and enhancing human capacity building.
For his part, Alhaji Fanday Turay expressed his great pleasure at visiting Egypt, praising the outstanding progress achieved in the Egyptian civil aviation sector in terms of infrastructure, aviation services, the modernisation of navigation and safety systems, as well as the development of training and qualification systems.
Turay stressed that his country looks forward to establishing a strategic partnership with Egypt that includes transferring Egyptian expertise to Sierra Leone, particularly in the areas of human capacity building, airport infrastructure development, and the enhancement of safety and security measures.
The Sierra Leonean minister added that his country values Egypt’s leading role in Africa, expressing hope to translate this co-operation into action through the implementation of joint training programmes, exchange of technical visits, and exploring the possibility of establishing air connectivity between Cairo and Freetown, which would enhance cultural, tourism, and trade exchange between the two countries.
At the close of the fruitful meeting, both sides stressed the importance of maintaining coordination and boosting co-operation in the fields of training and technical qualification, which would contribute to preparing specialised personnel to meet the needs of the aviation sector in Sierra Leone and to strengthening Egyptian-African co-operation in the field of civil aviation.
