Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg and Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner witnessed on Monday the signing of a contract on establishing a joint company between the National Authority for Egyptian Railways and Voestalpine Group.
The company is set to run and operate the Abbasiya workshop for manufacturing the railway keys.
The contract was signed by Mustafa Abu El Makarem, the head of the National Authority for Egyptian Railways, Franz Kainersdorfer, the chairman of the board of trustees of Voestalpine in the presence of Austrian Ambassador in Cairo Georg Stillfried.
According to the contract, about 300 railroad switches will be manufactured annually with plans to increase them to 600 after establishing a new production line, Wazir noted.
The minister also pointed out that the local production’s percentage would reach 95% at the workshop, noting the contract aims to reach self-sufficiency of railroad switches in light of the Transport Ministry’s plans to expand railway projects, including the metro and electric trains.
Wazir agreed with the Austrian ministers to train groups of Egyptian engineers by Austrian experts.
Schallenberg, meanwhile, said his visit to the Egyptian ministry embodies the strong relationship between the political leaderships of the two countries and Egypt’s great position in the region.
He also mentioned that Austrian companies largely pay attention to increasing cooperation with Egypt.
Source: State Information Service Egypt