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Prof. Mohamed Diaa Zein El-Abidin, President of Ain Shams University, and Dr. Khaled Mahmoud Abdel Halim Abdel Aal, Governor of Qena, signed a joint a cooperation between the two parties.

The signing ceremony was attended by Prof. Ghada Farouk, Vice President for Community Service and Environmental Development; Prof. Amany Osama Kamel, Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research; Prof. Mohamed Salehin, Professor at the Faculty of Engineering and Vice President of Ain Shams University for Academic Affairs; Prof. Sherweit Al-Ahmadi, Executive Director of the International Relations and Academic Cooperation Sector; and Prof. Arafa Mahmoud Ahmed, Director of the Urban Development Unit in the Governorate, who was assigned by the Governorate to coordinate the protocol.

The protocol comes within the framework of Qena Governorate's efforts to achieve an ambitious vision to become a regional development hub in southern Upper Egypt. It aims to be a green governorate that achieves economic development with a circular, green economy, attracts investment, and achieves comprehensive and sustainable urban development that implements Egypt Vision 2030 and the New Urban Agenda, achieves a balance between rural and urban areas, and maximizes public and private investments to achieve urban functions. Furthermore, the governorate seeks to improve public services and achieve the effectiveness of national projects within the governorate.

Ain Shams University is one of the oldest Egyptian universities with distinguished academic, technical, and research expertise in the fields of engineering, urban planning, environmental, and institutional development. This qualifies it to undertake advisory roles that enable it to participate and contribute to comprehensive development projects in Qena Governorate. This is achieved through the university's diverse cadres, centers, units, and academic departments, enabling it to solve societal problems and improve the quality of life for citizens through several areas, most notably health, education, engineering, urban, and planning consulting, youth and training, motherhood and childhood, people with special needs, water, sustainable development, environmental development, and mineral resources.

The protocol includes participation in planning and implementing events and conferences related to joint work, participating in cultural competitions and holding charity exhibitions, designing and implementing training, events, and capacity building for local government employees in the governorate, in addition to specialized technical studies in the fields of sustainable development, conducting feasibility studies for investment projects, and preparing the required plans and designs. The protocol also includes directing student assignments, postgraduate research, and graduation projects to serve development work in the governorate and providing access to the university's knowledge resources. It also includes organizing awareness campaigns in various fields (youth awareness, environmental protection, childcare, health awareness), and cooperation in the exchange of scientific consultations between the two parties.