by Mahmoud Fouly, Yao Bing
CAIRO, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese investments have been growing in Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), highlighting a promising future for the trade hub around the vital Suez Canal, chairman of the General Authority of the SCZone Waleid Gamal El-Dein said in a recent interview with Xinhua.
"We were very happy to attract a lot of investments in the last two years, worth more than 6 billion U.S. dollars, 40 percent of which are coming from China," Gamal El-Dein said.
Noting that he has visited China several times in the past 18 months, the chief said he would make more trips to China to attract investments for the zone in the automotive and pharmaceutical industries.
He added that visiting China "was a great opportunity to showcase the opportunities, the ecosystem, the infrastructure, and the incentives provided by the SCZone."
Chinese investors can benefit from the nearshoring activities and the foreign trade agreements that Egypt enjoys with multiple economic blocs, as well as the SCZone's location, uniqueness and proximity to markets, according to the chief.
More than 160 Chinese companies are working in various sectors in the SCZone, Gamal El-Dein said, adding that the sectors covered by Chinese investments include the manufacturing of fiberglass, new building materials, petroleum equipment, high and low-voltage gear, machinery and others.
Chinese giant industrial developer TEDA is a key SCZone partner. It developed a vast area of desert in the Ain Sokhna district of Suez province and built the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in 2008.
"Working with TEDA is very important. TEDA now has approximately 7.2 square kilometers of land for industrial areas. About 5.2 square kilometers have already been used for investments, and the remaining 2 million square meters are expected to house new investments very soon," said the SCZone chairman.
"Now we are in talks with TEDA to extend their land by another 3 million square meters to be able to accommodate new industries," he noted.
Gamal El-Dein said Egypt's SCZone and Suez Canal are vital hubs for the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
"I think Egypt in general and the SCZone in particular would be playing a huge part in the BRI," Gamal El-Dein told Xinhua.
"We believe the integration between our industrial areas and our ports is helping with integrating the SCZone within the BRI and helping investors in the zone achieve their objectives," he added.
The official is expected to visit Beijing in early September to attend the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
"For us, this is a very important forum to discuss with our partners in Africa how to better serve them and also to discuss with Chinese investors how they can better serve Africa from Egypt," Gamal El-Dein said. ■
