China's direct investment in Egypt up 66% in first 3 quarters

CAIRO - China's direct investment in Egypt in the first three quarters of 2019 rose by 66 percent to $74.9 million, a senior Chinese diplomat told a press conference on Tuesday at Egypt's under-construction new administrative capital city, east of Cairo.

Han Bing, minister counselor for commercial affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Egypt, said these Chinese investments cover several fields including domestic electric appliances, motorbike manufacturing, agriculture and others.

He added that among those Chinese investors in Egypt are Dayun Motorcycle, Konka, New Hope Group and Angel Yeast.

"Meanwhile some Chinese enterprises specialized in steel, medicine, textile, new energy, garbage collection, and sewage treatment are interested in the Egyptian market and related projects under discussion," Han told reporters.

The Chinese diplomat praised the "great effort" made by the Egyptian government to improve Egypt's business environment for foreign investors through issuing a series of new investment-magnet policies.

Trade between China and Egypt slightly declined in the first 10 months of 2019 to $10.58 billion, mostly represented in Chinese exports to Egypt.

"China remains Egypt's first trade partner," Han noted.

Egypt's exports to China include agricultural crops such as oranges, grapes and sugar beets, he said, adding Egypt is the top orange exporter to China with a market share of more than 40 percent.

Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA), a Chinese industrial developer, is currently developing an area of 7.23 square km in Egypt's vital Suez Canal economic zone. It has completed the first phase of about 1.25 square km and is working on the second phase of some six square km in Ain Sokhna district of Suez Province, east of the capital Cairo.

"TEDA zone has altogether 84 enterprises including 42 manufacturing companies, and has attracted more than $1 billion investment," Han pointed out.

The Chinese diplomat also referred to growing cooperation between China and Egypt under the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative that seeks common development for participating states through win-win partnerships.