With Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Cairo visit, many Egyptians are hopeful this will provide new opportunities for the country’s economy.
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Xi was received Thursday with a 21-gun salute as he arrived at one of Cairo’s presidential palaces for the Egyptian-Chinese summit. His Middle East tour, his first overseas visit in 2016, will later take him to Iran.
China is also expected to lend Egypt’s central bank $1 billion to help prop up its foreign reserves.
The deals span a raft of infrastructure investments including an agreement between Egypt’s Housing Ministry and a Chinese developer to work on the first phase of a new Egyptian administrative capital.
“My visit to Egypt is to cement and deepen the China-Egypt relationship in an all-round way, and advance practical cooperation between our two nations for new achievements”, Xi said when meeting Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail shortly after his arrival in Cairo in the afternoon.
Egypt and China signed a slew of economic agreements Thursday, including $1.7 billion in loans to Egyptian banks.
“China supports Egypt’s efforts to maintain stability, develop the economy and improve livelihoods, and supports Egypt to play an even greater role in worldwide and regional affairs”, he said in the short statement.
Egypt has struggled to restore growth since the 2011 uprising ushered in a period of political instability that scared off tourists and foreign investors, key earners of foreign currency.
Sisi, who visited China in 2014, said economic and military cooperation had developed quickly to reach unprecedented levels.
Xi arrived in Egypt from Saudi Arabia and will head next to Iran.
Meanwhile, the country’s official Al-Ahram newspaper in a special report of 20 pages on Wednesday recalled the historical moments in bilateral relations, and expected China and Egypt to sign an array of cooperative documents in such areas as small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture, tourism, electricity and education during Xi’s visit.
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China and Saudi Arabia expressed deep concern about Syria and renewed a call for a peaceful political settlement as soon as possible.
