Egypt's Transportation Minister Mohamed Mansour is to meet with his Spanish counterpart José Blanco as well as Silvia Iranzo, Secretary of State for Trade and the person responsible for the financial aspect of bilateral relations. They are going to discuss ways of boosting cooperation to establish a rapid train linking Upper Egypt governorates with those along the Red Sea. The aim is to secure and revitalize the tourist traffic between Egypt's eastern coasts and the archeological antiquities in Luxor and Aswan. Before leaving for the Spanish capital on a four-day official visit, the transportation minister said railways, roads and bridges would top the agenda of the bilateral meetings with Spanish officials. He said roads and bridges needed technical support in order to maintain and boost the operational efficiency of the roads belonging to the Ministry of Transportation.
"Spain has made remarkable progress in transportation projects over the past two decades. They have the better network of freeways in the world and the most modern technology to set up, run and maintain these networks and to offer advisory services in this regard," Mansour added.
He stressed that Spain had provided its advisory expertise for Egyptian roads and bridges to turn Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road into a freeway according to international specifications.
The minister pointed out that the door was open for Spanish companies to invest in the different transportation sectors in Egypt and that the ministry was keen to let Spanish investors play a key role in supporting developmental transportation and infrastructure projects. He finally said Spain was the third country in terms of volume of foreign investments and its experiences could be useful to develop transportation projects in Egypt.
