Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Amr Mousa urged African countries Friday to reorganise themselves in trade and economic matters, so as to attain higher growth.
Speaking in Lusaka when he met Zambia's foreign affairs minister, Lawrence Shimba, Mousa said that governments should do their part in providing good and enabling environment for business.
We have entered a new era when a foreign minister visits other countries to see opportunities for economic trade. As government we must get both the public and private sectors acquainted and it's up to them to do the remaining part, Mousa said.
He noted that Africa was an emerging continent in trade and was optimistic that it could even do much better, attaining over 50 percent growth, which has already been recorded in other countries.
Mousa is on a tour of Southern African Development Community states to try and boost trade relations between his country and these countries.
During his stay here, Mousa intends to intensify existing bilateral relations between Egypt and Zambia in the promotion of trade through the public and private sectors.
Mousa is also expected to hold discussions with Zambian government officials on issues affecting Africa, including ongoing political conflicts in some countries.
Egypt and Zambia signed a new trade agreement in 1995, aimed at strengthening cooperation. The deal is yet to be ratified.
The Egyptian second secretary for commerical and economic affairs at the embassy in Lusaka, Ayman Ghanima, told PANA Friday that bilateral trade between the two countries had increased in 1996, mainly due to the import of Zambian copper, worth about 2.8 million U.S. dollars.
Ghanima said that the steadily increasing volume of trade both in import and export was 108,000 dollars in 1994 and and 2.9 million in 1996. He named copper as the main item that Egypt sought from Zambia and exported mainly medicine and leather shoes.
Although the two countries are faced with transport problems because of the distance between them, he said, there was still much more to be done to explore and promote trade.