L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

ceeds 400; in Hurghada alone, there are dozens of Russian hotel
employees.
The most promising spheres of Russian-Egyptian cooperation in
tourism are: further development of traditional tourism in such new
areas as the Red Sea and Mediterranean coasts of Sinai, Western
desert oases and Aswan; construction and operation of hotels and
other facilities for Russian citizens; combination of different kinds
of tourism, introduction of new routes and development of elite tourism;
business tourism, organization of various conferences, seminars
and business weeks in Egypt.
As for the cooperation in science and technology, Egypt is interested
in Russian proposals concerning projects in environment protection,
geology, natural resources and agriculture (perfection of the
operation of reclamation and drainage systems).
In January 2000, a seminar on the higher education in Russia
was held in Cairo. It discussed the opportunities for training Egyptian
students in Russia, above all, in engineering and sciences. Egyptians
want their students to undergo practical training at Russian enterprises,
including private companies. This is a promising sphere
for the Russian-Egyptian cooperation. In addition, Egypt is interested
in inviting Russian scholars and experts to Egyptian scientific
research institutions.
Notably, other CIS countries actively compete with Russia at the
Egyptian market. One of them is Ukraine, which inherited almost all
Black Sea ports after the disintegration of the USSR.
Despite objective and subjective difficulties, the cooperation between
Russian and Egyptian businessmen has fair prospects. Russian
entrepreneurs have expanded the geographical limits of their
activity and demonstrate interest in Africa.
Commercial and economic ties with Egypt have a solid legal
foundation. In 1992 (14 May), the Agreement on Trade, Economic
and Technological Scientific Cooperation was signed. On 5 November
1993, it was supplemented with a protocol which provided for the
transition to monetary settlements in freely convertible currency between
the countries and envisaged mutual granting of the status of the
most favored nation. In accordance with the Decision of the Govern-
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