Top Biz News
Egypt beckons Chinese firms
By Ding Qingfen (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-03 11:12
 |
Large Medium Small |
BEIJING - Egypt is stepping up efforts to encourage more Chinese companies to invest in the Middle East nation, in a bid to narrow its trade deficit with China, said Egyptian Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin.
"We will have solid and strong investment from China," Mohieldin told China Daily.
"We hope in 2010 the number of Chinese companies that invest in Egypt will grow by over 10 to 15 percent."
According to Egyptian government statistics, 1,022 Chinese manufacturing, infrastructure, telecoms and logistics companies established a presence in Egypt.
China is the 22nd largest foreign investor in Egypt, with an accumulative investment of $307 million.
"About 85 percent of the investment was made during the past five years," Mohieldin said.
Sino-Egyptian trade has grown rapidly during the past five years, with annual growth exceeding 30 percent.
Bilateral trade rose to $6.24 billion in 2009, from $610 million a decade ago.
| ||||
"We expect to get more investment from China, and benefit more from that."
Egypt's trade deficit with China was $4.2 billion in 2007 and $5.4 billion in 2008.
"The more investment we could get from China, the more commodities Egypt could sell back to China and other African nations," said Mohieldin.
Egypt imports raw materials from China such as cotton, marble, rubber, oil, glass, flax products and leather.
