India plans IT institute at university in Cairo, Salman Khurshid says

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday discussed the situation in Syria and West Asia with Egypt's foreign minister Nabil Fahmy who has chosen India as the destination of his first visit to Asia. The government said that he had broad ranging discussions with his counterpart Salman Khurshid. 

The focus of the two-hour-long deliberations was to sustain the momentum in India-Egypt bilateral relations and to expand the interactions to wider areas of regional and international issues of interest, said government officials. 

Khurshid informed his Egyptian counterpart of India's approval to establishing a Centre of Excellence in Information Technology at the Al Azhar University in Cairo. The Centre which will be set up as project under the India-Africa Forum Summit is planned for completion in a year after the confirmation of infrastructure by the host institution. Once completed, it will train 500 students annually. 

The Egyptian foreign minister also outlined the developments in Egypt and the roadmap ahead. 

The two ministers also discussed various specific issues related to enhancing economic cooperation including the need to ease work permit regulations for professionals. Currently, bilateral trade between India and Egypt stands at $5.4 billion. India is the third largest destination of Egyptian exports ($2.6 billion) and Egypt is the 11th largest destination of Indian exports ($2.9 billion). 

The Egyptian foreign minister also called on the Vice-President Hamid Ansari and met the national security adviser (NSA) Shivshankar Menon. 

(Source : Times of India)