by Mahmoud Fouly

CAIRO, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The economic zone near Egypt's vital Suez Canal built by China's giant industrial developer TEDA is a promising model of the Belt and Road cooperation between Egypt and China, which contributes to the Egyptian industrial development, representatives of Egyptian political parties have said.

Representatives from a dozen renowned Egyptian parties, such as the Homat Al Watan (the Protectors of the Nation) Party, the Free Egyptians Party, the Al-Wafd Party, the Egyptian Socialist Party, and the Justice Party, recently toured the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Ain Sokhna district of Suez province, where they visited a few Chinese factories, including those of Chinese home appliance manufacturer Midea and Chinese fiberglass giant Jushi.

Eslam EI-Shamy, human resources manager of Midea Egypt, said his company's factory is operating at TEDA zone's new 6-square-km expansion area and is currently producing about 120,000 dishwashers and 500,000 air fryers annually, with 70 percent of their components being manufactured in Egypt.

Ma Xinyao, deputy general manager of Jushi Egypt, a company that has been operating in TEDA zone's primary area for about 12 years, told Xinhua that the company has four production lines with an annual production capacity of 360,000 tonnes of fiberglass.

"Our total investment in Jushi Egypt is around 1 billion U.S. dollars. We export 95 percent of our Egypt's production while 5 percent goes to the local market," Ma noted.

"What we saw today in TEDA, the size of the business over an area of more than 7 square km, the Chinese companies present, and the technology transfer to Egypt, is what we've been wishing for through cooperation with China, and it is happening now," said Amr Suleiman, spokesman of the Homat Al Watan Party.

TEDA zone is a "real translation" of the Egyptian-Chinese comprehensive strategic partnership, an embodiment of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for common development, and a contribution to Egypt Vision 2030 for sustainable development, Suleiman told Xinhua.

The cooperation zone built in 2008 by China's TEDA covers an area of 7.34 square km. According to Cao Hui, executive director of Egypt-TEDA SEZone Development Company, about 180 investment companies have been attracted to the zone by the end of September, with actual investment exceeding 3 billion dollars, sales volume surpassing 4.6 billion dollars, and tax payments reaching 450 million dollars.

The zone has also created nearly 9,000 direct and over 80,000 indirect job opportunities in Egypt, Cao noted.

"The TEDA cooperation zone is a successful model within both the Chinese Belt and Road map and the Suez Canal axis development map, due to Egypt's strategic location and the distinguished relations between the two countries," Cao said.

"I think TEDA zone is very promising. This is my first time to visit the zone, but I did not imagine that I would find such a large amount of industries. I was surprised to find products that I may have at home and didn't know they were manufactured here," Ali Abdel-Wadud, member of the foreign relations committee of the Al-Wafd Party, told Xinhua inside Midea's factory in the zone.

"It is such a strong push forward for Egyptian-Chinese cooperation in investment and industry under the BRI, as I've seen today very leading Chinese companies present in the zone," he said. Enditem

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