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Major general Mahmoud Sharawi  the minister of local development, received  Dominic Goh the ambassador of Singapore, in Cairo, in the presence of a number of the ministry  and the Singaporean embassy leaders.

At the beginning of the meeting, general Mahmoud Sharawi congratulated the ambassador on his appointment as his country's ambassador to Egypt last September. The minister offered his sincere thanks for the hosting of  the Singaporean side to a delegation from the ministry at the conference of physical planning and urban development  that was held at the end of last year in Singapore  as well as The embassy's invitation to the ministry to participate in a workshop on the sustainability of integrated water resources and management of storm water, to be held next march.

The meeting also discussed ways of cooperation between the two sides, exchange of experiences and training programs, particularly in solid waste, city plans, improvement of public safety and energy efficiency, and treatment of watercourses and rivers.

The minister of local development emphasized the strong and distinctive ties between the two countries, particularly after  the visits of President Abd El Fatah El-sisi to Singapore in August 2015 and the visit of the President of Singapore to Cairo in October 2016.

Sharawi said that bilateral relations between the two countries had been constantly developing in recent years, noting that Egypt believed that Singapore was a prime example of the economic and social development sought by various developing countries.

The minister stressed Egypt's eagerness  to take advantage of Singapore's distinctive experience  particularly in the fields of port management , desalination, optimizing the use of rain water and solid waste, Digital transformation, urban development, and industrial zone management, as well as the education and the vocational training.

During the meeting, the minister outlined the government's efforts in developing technology centers, providing services rapidly to citizens and separating the service provider from its applicant, particularly for licensing services.

For his part, the ambassador of Singapore pointed out that Singapore's total investment in Cairo was currently about 500 million dollars, He referred the volume of trade between the two countries was 1 billion dollars , and the export and import products were mainly concentrated in consumer and agricultural products.

They also discussed exchange visits and study Tours for specialists in fields  of  the ministry’s interests. He explored the possibility of inviting experts from Singapore in the fields of sewage, lake and solid waste removal and benefiting from leading Singaporean solid waste companies.

Sharawi confirmed that the ministry is keen to cooperate between the local development training center in Sakkara and the Singapore training centers for local administration.

Ambassador of Singapore has invited major general Mahmoud Sharawi to attend the world cities summit to be held in Singapore next July on the issues of city development , sustainable development and city management will be discussed in the presence of a number of ministers from various countries of the world, private sector companies and representatives of development Banks.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the minister of local development presented the shield of the ministry to the ambassador of Singapore. And the ambassador of Singapore presented the minister a book written by the last prime minister of Singapore “Singapore history …  From the third world to the first”.

Translated by : Hanaa Mohamed