On March 30, 2021, the Sudan Working Group at the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs held a panel discussion on “Opportunities for Enhancing Egypt-Sudan Relations”, opened by Ambassador Dr. Mounir Zahran, ECFA Chairman, and in which Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad, ECFA Director, and Ambassador Marwan Badr, Coordinator of the Permanent Committee on African Affairs at the Council, and Dr. Manal Abdel Moneim, Council member and former CEO of Al-Nasr for Export and Import, in addition to the members of the Sudan Working Group, namely: Dr. Sherief El Khoraiby, ECFA member, Dr. Osama Kamal, former Minister of Petroleum (via video conference), and Dr. Khaled Atta, professor at the Arab Academy for Maritime Transport (Border Facilitation), Dr. Atef Hassaan, former Minister Plenipotentiary – Egyptian Commercial Service, Major General Engineer Nashaat Ibrahim, a specialist in information technology and communications, and heads a company specialized in this field, and Captain/ Hassan Aziz, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AlMasria Universal Airlines (private company), and Dr. Gamal El Shaer, Undersecretary of the National Media Authority.

In this context, reference was made to a number of projects aimed at strengthening cooperation between the Egyptian and Sudanese sides, including: organizing a bilateral economic-cultural forum to be held annually alternately between the two countries to promote investment and trade opportunities in both countries; Activating trade agreements between Egypt and Sudan to overcome the difficulties facing Egyptian exports to Sudanese territories; Establishing a joint permanent exhibition of Egyptian and Sudanese products in Sudan; Signing a memorandum of understanding between the Central Banks in the two countries to facilitate the business community’s access to their dues in the national currency in their country; Establishing a southern logistic complex across the Egyptian-Sudanese border to collect and distribute Egyptian exports for trade across African borders, in accordance with the latest technological and trade systems in place; Stimulating electric and solar-powered transportation by exempting them from customs and taxes; joint mineral and oil exploration in the Red Sea and the common desert; operating regular flights from Khartoum, Port Sudan and Juba to Cairo, via AlMasria Universal Airlines; Providing Egyptian assistance in developing a strategic plan for digital transformation in all aspects of life; Concluding a twinning agreement between the major Egyptian universities and their counterparts in Sudan; Dispatching Egyptian cultural convoys to the Sudanese society.

Finally, the participants stressed the importance of holding similar meetings on a regular basis to consider what mechanisms can be adopted in order to move forward in implementing these proposals and other ones, thus to consolidate cooperation between Egypt and Sudan.