Sisi's visit to Vietnam is a push to establish advanced investment projects

[HAIDER]

I am surprised to learn that this was the first visit to Vietnam by an Arab head of state. Difficult to understand seeing how Vietnam is a developing economy and a very promising one at that.

I like Al-Sisi's pragmatic approach in terms of foreign policy. Hopefully such kind of visits will be beneficial for Egypt and the Egyptian people. In any case bolstering the ties with countries like Vietnam is a win-win situation.

I do however wonder what Vietnam as a country can offer in terms of military cooperation. Someone more knowledgeable than me on this front should educate me and others.

BTW I recall Southern Yemen (a communist state) having rather close ties to Vietnam, at least politically but not sure what the legacy of this relationship ever was.

During mid 90's lot of Saudi investor bought farm land in Vietnam and far east to meet food demand in KSA.

 

[Saif al-Arab]

I have the list of visits by Middle East heads of state and Prime Ministers to Vietnam (sorry in Vietnamese)
http://www.baomoi.com/viet-nam-tang-cuong-hop-tac-kinh-te-voi-trung-dong-bac-phi/c/12313008.epi

Algerian President Zeroual (1996)
Algerian President Bouteflika (2000)
Sudan President Al-Bashir (1995)
Iran Presidents Rafsanjani (1995) and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2012)
Kuwait Prime Minister Nasser Al Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-
Makhtoum (2007)
Later Palestine President Arafat (many times, last time in 2001)
Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas
Morocco Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi (2008)
Israel President Simon Peres (2011)
Qatar Prime Minister Hamas Bin Jasim Bin Jaber Al Thani (2008)
Qatar King Hamas Bin Khalifa Al Thani (2012)…



We know that there are many Vietnamese labourers working there in oil&gas and construction, but I do not know the exact number.

I do hope that the relationship between Vietnam and KSA and Middle East in general will only improve.

Thank you a lot for posting this list.

Turns out that there have been several visits of Arab officials. I had a feeling that this could not possibly be the first state visit by an Arab head of state to a country the size of Vietnam.

Sadly, I cannot spot any visits from KSA or Iraq. Hopefully that will be in the books soon.

Not only some are involved in other businesses as well. Quite a few seem to be doing rather well.

Very well put. Totally agree.

During mid 90's lot of Saudi investor bought farm land in Vietnam and far east to meet food demand in KSA.

Doubtful, as KSA was almost entirely self-sufficient in the 1990's when it came to food (agriculture). For instance KSA was one of the largest wheat and grain exporters in the world the decade before (1980). It must have occurred (if it has occurred - I personally don't recall or know about such a thing with full certainty) after it was decided that large-scale agriculture in KSA (as of now) was economically non-sufficient (groundwater issue).

Even today KSA could be almost self-sufficient if not for it being easier to import from the likes of South Asia, Horn of Africa, Latin America etc. So far at least, due to the not so large population for the time being.

KSA has a well-run agricultural sector. For instance we have the largest diary factories in the world. Read about AlMarai.

1.2 million views (about a damn dairy factory, hilarious if you ask me):

KSA is characterized by seasonal agriculture due to the groundwater issue and terrain (mountains and deserts). Non-agricultural areas during the summer (even in the desert) can be cultivated during the spring, winter and autumn however it is not counted as "agricultural" land officially.

Even in the middle of KSA (Riyadh, Najd as a whole) there is a very large agricultural sector ranging from almost every vegetable and fruit that you can imagine and of a quite good quality as well. Plenty of greenhouses too.

You can read about this on your own.

 

[Gomig-21]

I would like to mention this is only the first phase completed over 3500 Feddan , there are 3 more phases which would bring total project size to 26,000 Feddan and will eventually produce around 1 million tons of fish and shrimps .

The project was completed in an area which is famous for illegal immigration. Instead of keeping border gaurds in this region the government decided to turn it into the biggest fish farm in Africa and middle east, the first phase will employ around 15,000 people .

Any other Arab government would have instead bombed the shit out of people living there and arrested them under terrorism charges.

The progress they made in just one year on that fish farm project alone with all the fish and shrimp ponds is very promising. The growth rate of the shrimp is much faster than the different species of fish but it looks like they'll be balancing that out very nicely. The weather is just perfect and so ideal for these farms and aquaculture just like she mentioned in the video.

All these concepts of hatcheries for farming and consumption is something that are -- just like so many other things -- projects that Mubarak should've started decades ago. These are not new concepts and have actually been around for more than half a century. Back in the mid-80's they developed the concept of agricultural farming and irrigation in the desert. It was such a simple process of relocating crops of fertile mud from the abundance of it along the Nile and planting "pods" within desert areas and irrigating them through pumping wells, creating lavish farms. This worked really well and we were actually involved in that back then. And with Egypt's vast lands and shores, these types of projects are bound to succeed, they just need the initiative and it looks like it's been happening.