The long-awaited and much-anticipated visit by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to Turkey yesterday has yielded the signing of 18 MoUs deepening cooperation between the two countries on areas of transport, energy, and more. El Sisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a joint presser (watch, runtime: 33:50) where they stressed their desire to expand ties, with Erdogan reiterating the two countries seek to boost trade nearly threefold from USD 5 bn to USD 15 bn over the next five years.

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The two countries are planning to jump into action straight away: The two sides plan to boost the volume of trade between them to USD 8 bn next year, up from last year’s USD 6.6 bn, a government official told Asharq Business. Egypt also wants to attract an additional USD 1 bn in Turkish investments over the next 18 months to bolster existing investments of approximately USD 3 bn.

Background: Turkey has been the largest importer of Egyptian goods for the last three years, with industrial goods constituting the largest portion of Egypt’s exports to the nation, Asharq writes. Trade between the two countries is centered around ready-made clothing, fabrics, home appliances, fertilizers, electrical appliances, steel, cars, and agricultural products, the official said.

Details are scant on those MoUs: The 18 inked MoUs cover sectors including transport, energy, defense, education, tourism, health, culture, agriculture and finance. In the presser, Erdogan also made specific reference to Turkey being interested in deepening natural gas and nuclear energy cooperation.

More meetings are on the agenda: A delegation of Egyptian businessmen will be heading to Turkey to discuss ways to boost trade and investments between the two sides, Executive Director of the Egyptian Businessmen Association Mohamed Youssef told Al Arabiya.

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