Egypt is looking forward to collaborating with Switzerland in to boost its digital economy transformation, uplifting the efficiency of public finances, enhancing structural reforms of the Egyptian economy, and developing Egypt's customs and tax authorities, Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait has said.

Maait made his statements during a meeting held Thursday with Swiss Ambassador to Egypt Paul Garnier.

Maait noted that Egypt is the only country in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that has managed to maintain confidence in its economy, citing the assessment of Standards and Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch credit ratings for the Egyptian economy that kept a positive economic outlook, maintaining credit rating levels, despite the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

Maait also asserted the Egyptian government's keenness to reinforce bilateral ties with Switzerland, especially in health, education, transport and renewable energy, localising international experience in Egypt for the sake of attaining the country’s sustainable development goals under Egypt’s Vision 2030.

For his part, Ambassador Garnier hailed Egypt’s successful economic reform programme at the fiscal and monetary levels, which injected flexibility into its economy that enabled Egypt to deal effectively with the pandemic and its associated impacts.

Garnier asserted that Swiss government is eager to enhance cooperation with Egypt in all sectors and to provide technical support concerning structural reforms and human resources development.

Total trade between the two countries jumped to CHF 410 million in the first quarter of 2020, up from CHF 383 million in the same quarter of 2019, despite the ongoing crisis, according to Swiss Federal Customs Administration (FCA) data.

Egypt has been Switzerland’s biggest trade partner in Africa and one of the largest trade partners in 2020. In addition, Switzerland was Egypt’s tenth biggest trade partner in FY 2018/2019, according to the Swiss Embassy in Egypt.

In 2019, total trade volume between the two countries recorded to CHF 1.3 billion, rising by around 14 percent compared to 2018 levels.