Egypt is Malaysia's largest trading partner in North Africa
Egypt is Malaysia’s largest trading partner in North Africa, with a total trade valued at RM3.8 billion (USD904.1 million) in 2021.
The statement comes from a joint press conference held between His Excellency Sameh Hassan shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt and Saifuddin Abdullah, Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Minister.
“This is a substantial increase of 84.5 percent, compared to the recorded value in 2020. In 2021, Malaysia’s palm oil export to Egypt was valued RM1.58 billion, a substantial increase of 103 percent (from RM777.9 million recorded in 2020),” says Malaysia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah.
Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry is also scheduled to undertake a trade mission to Egypt soon.
Saifuddin says he believes such a trade mission will be crucial to strengthening economic collaboration with Egypt. Malaysia offers a lot of potential and attractive business and investment opportunities.
We in Malaysia know that Egypt also offers many business potentials.
“These include the development of Egypt’s New Administrative Capital (New Cairo), and the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE).
“We will continue to encourage business communities and private sectors in both countries to explore all these opportunities. Perhaps it is time that Malaysia-Egypt Business Council be reactivated,” he says in a statement today.
Education and Egypt
The minister says education has always been an integral component of Malaysia- Egypt relations. Egypt continues to be a popular destination for Malaysian students pursuing their tertiary education, especially in Islamic studies, medicine and dentistry.
“Malaysia is very grateful to Egypt for welcoming thousands of our students, and according them with a conducive environment during their stay.
“We also appreciate scholarships (60 scholarships – one-off offer) offered by the Egyptian Government to students from Malaysia. Our Ministry of Higher Education is following up to optimize the uptake of this offer,” he adds.
Malaysia also looks forward to welcoming more international students from Egypt to pursue their studies in Malaysia (2,306 as of January 2022).
Malaysia and Egypt have also been cooperating in the field of training and capacity building. Egypt is among the earliest beneficiary countries of the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP).
To date, 708 Egyptian officials have attended numerous courses under the MTCP. Malaysian officials have also benefited from training opportunities provided by Egypt through programmes under the Egyptian Ministry of Waqf (Wakaf), Dar Al Ifta (Darul Ifta) and Al Azhar Al Sharif. (For 2012-2020, 2,034 Malaysian officials participated in such programmes).