Economy

Chinese investment in Egypt offers job opportunities

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-25 11:35

CAIRO: Chinese investment in Egypt offers local people with tens of thousands job opportunities, Abdel Gelil El-Fahkrani, governor of Ismailia, told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview.

The governorate has attracted huge Chinese investment to its industrial zones and the Qntra Shraq area, said the official.

Progress has been made on the Chinese side to establish a new industrial project to produce aluminum with an investment of 4.5 billion Egyptian pounds (about $796 million), he said.

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Ismailia is a city on the west bank of the Suez Canal in northeast Egypt. Thanks to its convenient transport, Chinese investment has been increasing here.

El-Fahkrani said that the new project will produce various kinds of aluminum to be used in different industries.

"The Chinese side has asked us to provide 20,000 square meters of land for the new project, which will bring more than 3,000 job opportunities," the governor said.

In 2009, some 135 Chinese-funded projects were approved in the industrial zones in Ismailia. These can provide more than 20,000 jobs for local people.

Some 30 Chinese projects were approved during the first quarter of this year in the governorate, which are expected to offer some 1,800 jobs.

On May 14, Egyptian Investment Minister Mahmoud Mohieldin said that Egypt and China were eyeing cooperation in many fields other than trade of traditional goods.

The two countries will tap trade potentials in sectors of services, auto, transport and logistics, Mohieldin said.

China and Egypt established strategic cooperation partnership in 2009. Bilateral trade surpassed?$6billion last year.