India, Egypt ink 7 pacts and MoUs to boost talks

Agree to enhance cooperation in defence and at international forums like UN New Delhi (Agencies): In a bid to deepen ties and strengthen economic bonds, India and Egypt on Tuesday signed seven key pacts, including one on cyber security, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi held bilateral talks here.A The two leaders also agreed to enhance cooperation in defence and at international forums like UN. Underlining that India and Egypt have enormous potential for deepening cooperation across the full spectrum of ties, Singh said economic partnership has "rich possibilities".A "We agreed that information technology, services, electronics, small and medium enterprises, manufacturing, fertilisers, and renewable energy constitute important areas of cooperation. Egypt's location, as a bridge between Asia and Africa, astrides a major global trade route and together with its skilled human resources makes it an attractive business destination for India," he said. The Prime Minister said he and Morsi agreed to foster productive partnerships in socio-economic development programmes, skill development, higher education, agriculture and health care. "We also agreed to enhance our defence exchanges and cooperation," he said. "The agreements that we have signed today are a clear manifestation of our desire to impart a new dynamism to our relationship," Singh said. The seven agreements signed include an MoU in the field of cyber security, setting up of a Centre for Excellence in IT (CEIT) in Egypt's Al Azhar University, cooperation in the field of protection of intellectual property rights besides others. MoUs were also signed to identify a number of core areas which would be the focus of cooperation. These include e-governance and e-education, IT and electronics hardware, sharing of experiences in the creation of Technology Parks and IT clusters, and strengthening the cooperation between ICT companies in the private sector among others.