On Thursday, January 15th, The Canada Egypt Business Council hosted a special reception on the occasion of the visit of the Honorable John Baird, Canada’s minister of Foreign Affairs to Egypt.

The visit comes within the continuous and ongoing bilateral efforts between Canada and Egypt to explore multilateral, regional and bilateral trade opportunities in support of the cooperation towards enhancing the Egyptian-Canadian relations and business environment.

Members of the Council and their guests, the Egyptian minister of Finance, Egypt’s former ministers of higher education, administrative development, social solidarity, health and information and H.E. Amre Moussa were among the guests.

Ambassadors of Canada, Belarus, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Georgia also were present together with other government representatives.

CEBC Chairman, Mr. Motaz Raslan, started his welcoming remarks by highlighting the importance of the goodwill of Egypt’s friends at this stage of transformation, “Canada is particularly well-positioned to be a key partner as Egypt moves forward”, Raslan said. The Chairman highlighted that with its economic power and its pioneering education systems among other areas of strength, Canada is the prime location for Egyptian entrepreneurs to look for partners. This, Raslan said, is the very purpose of the council, which is to foster prosperous and mutually beneficial trade relations between both countries.

“Canada and Egypt have come a long way since 1954 when they established formal diplomatic relations and since that time I believe the relationship has soared to new heights. For example Egypt can never forget the stellar role played by Canada’s former minister of foreign affairs, the Hon. Lester Pearson for resolving the Suez Crisis by suggesting the notion of a UN-led “peacekeeping” force to solve the crisis back in 1956…A role that has not only appointed him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957…but to gain the love and respect of all Egyptians and Canadians” said Raslan.

As the Canada Egypt Business Council continues to march towards achieving its main aim which is to foster the development of trade relations between Canada and Egypt and in light of this important visit, Eng. Motaz Raslan, Chairman of the Canada Egypt Business Council (CEBC) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with its new counterparts in the United Arab Emirates: the Canadian Business Council of Abu Dhabi (CBC-Abu Dhabi) and the Canadian Business Council of Dubai and North Emirates (CBC-Dubai).

The three councils believe very much in the benefits of such an important collaboration which will pave the way for bringing together hundreds of companies from Canada, Egypt, and UAE to trade and investment opportunities as well as promoting a solid Canadian-Emirati-Egyptian relationship based on the three countries’ mutual strategic interests.

Mr. Bassam Fouad, Vice Chair of the Canadian Business Council of Abu Dhabi was present on behalf of the (CBC-Abu Dhabi) and (CBC-Dubai), in his remarks before the audience, Bassam emphasized that this agreement comes within the belief that there is enormous untapped potentials for further development of Canadian/Egyptian/Emirati relations especially in business and trade arenas, where new business opportunities could act as bridges for the benefit of the members of the three councils as well as acting as a good chance to explore multilateral, regional and bilateral trade opportunities.

The podium was then given to Admiral Mohab Mameesh, Chairman & Managing Director, Suez Canal Authority who also signed a memorandum of understanding between the Suez Canal Authority and the Canada’s Commercial Cooperation in the context of their cooperation in the new project of Suez Canal.

In his comments he noted that the new Suez Canal project will carry benevolence and welfare not only to Egypt but to the whole world. “We are working really hard to finalize the project as well as the master plan of the development area on time”, said Mameesh. He also noted that he is happy to work with the Canadian government on this important project commenting “we consider Canada, the Canadians and the Canadian government as partners and friends, we work together to achieve peace making and we look forward to more future cooperation between our two countries”.

In his welcoming remarks, the Honorable John Baird highlighted the importance of the goodwill of Egypt’s friends at this stage, “we in Canada, when it comes to our relationship with Egypt have one single goal, that Canada becomes Egypt’s new best friend in the west and we are tremendously excited to work with President Al Sisi and the new administration specifically on stability and offering prosperity as well as creating more economic bilateral opportunities”.

Minister Baird mentioned that during the visit he was happy to announce the 20 million dollars development initiatives to work with the young people to help secure economic future plans and another 50 million dollars to work on the empowerment of young women and entrepreneurs.

Baird also highlighted his visit to Luxor and some of the meetings he held in Cairo with his counterpart minister Sameh Shoukry and Coptic Pope Tawadros.
“We share the same desire to see the Egyptian economy rebound not only in tourism but in many other sectors where Canada is excited to endorse next March’s economic summit in Sharm Sheikh where Canada will ensure to have a Canadian delegation participating not only from the government but also from the private sector to encourage the investment and economic opportunities” said minister Baird.

Finally ambassador Troy Lulashnyk, the Canadian ambassador to Egypt concluded the remarks by expressing his satisfaction and happiness with such a successful visit of minister Baird to Egypt and assured what came in Baird’s comments about Canada’s support to Egypt and reinforcing Egypt’s new path forward. He also highlighted the new Canadian/Egyptian cooperation in the form of signing the memorandum of understanding between the Canada’s Commercial Cooperation and the Suez Canal authority where both parties will share their efforts to work on the development of the area of this new big project opening new channels to similar future cooperation between Egypt and Canada.