ANKARA-- Egyptian President Abdelfattah Al-Sisi's visit to Tuyrkiye on Wednesday at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reflects the continued growth of economic and trade ties following the resumption of diplomatic and political relations. The endeavor is widely forecast to contribute to promoting economic relations amid an earnest political desire to boost mutual trade exchange, with both sides hinging upon the significance of the first meeting of a recently restructured cooperation council according to an agreement that was signed during Erdogan's visit to Cairo on February 14.

During Al-Sisi's visit, several agreements aiming at developing and bolstering Egyptian-Turkish relations are expected to be hammered out. In spite of growing political differences between Ankara and Cairo over the last decade, their economic and trade relations were not negatively affected thanks to a nearly-two-decade free trade agreement.

Turkiye was Egypt's key importer in 2022 and ranked Cairo's eighth key exporter, having reflected the continued development of bilateral economic relations.
The volume of bilateral trade hiked to USD 6.9 billion last year, compared to USD 5.7 billion in 2021, with Egyptian exports to Turkiye having edged up to roughly USD 3.78 billion and imports to around USD 3.18.

Cairo and Ankara are looking forward to boosting their trade exchange from USD 15 billion to USD 20 billion during the coming few years, based on the Egyptian Arish Port and Turkish Port of Mersin.
Bilateral energy relations are also expected to be strengthened since Turkiye was Egypt's top natural gas importer with a value of USD 917.2 million during the first quarter of 2022.
Commenting on this, Henda Alb, an economist, told KUNA that Ankara-Cairo cooperation has pushed both sides to create an attractive investment environment for their companies.

She added that Ankara and Cairo seek to further promote bilateral cooperation and joint interests, considering the visit an appropriate opportunity for both sides to defeat the looming challenges and to work together on a wider scale to upgrade economic stability to larger levels.
She believed that closer political ties between Turkiye and Egypt would unquestionably lead to increasing economic figures (trade exchange, investments and tourism), recalling that their economic ties were not severed during the political cul-de-sac.

Egypt is considered Turkiye's key trade partner in Africa, while Turkiye is a transit market for Egyptian exports to European markets.
Both countries are well aware of each other's strategic geographic weight as trade exchange hit an unprecedented hike of around USD 7.1 billion in 2022 after their free trade agreement was put in place.
Ankara and Cairo signed a bilateral free trade agreement in 2005, which became effective in 2007 and relieved Egyptian industrial exports of customs tariffs and taxes.

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