Egypt, China's Foton Motor aim to localize producing electric buses in Egypt

Li Wei, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, speaks during a bus delivery ceremony in Salam City, east of Cairo, capital of Egypt, on Oct. 29, 2019. Egypt's Ministry of Military Production and China's vehicle manufacturer Foton Motor celebrated on Tuesday the launch of a new project for jointly manufacturing electric buses in Egypt. During a ceremony in Salam City, both sides also celebrated the delivery of Foton's first batch of two electric buses for Egypt. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Ministry of Military Production and China's vehicle manufacturer Foton Motor celebrated on Tuesday the launch of a new project for jointly manufacturing electric buses in Egypt.

During a ceremony in Salam City, east of the Egyptian capital Cairo, both sides also celebrated the delivery of Foton's first batch of two electric buses for Egypt.

Speaking at the ceremony, Egyptian Minister of Military Production Mohammed al-Assar said he was honored to receive the first two buses as part of the first phase of a deal to manufacture the buses in Egypt.

The localization of the production of electric buses in Egypt will be carried out in cooperation between Egypt's Ministry of Military Production, Foton Motor and the Egyptian company IMUT.

In April, the Egyptian ministry signed an agreement with Foton Motor to produce 2,000 electric buses in one of the ministry's factories in four years.

Under the agreement, some 48 electric buses will be delivered to the Egyptian army's factory in December 2019.

"The Ministry of Military Production signed a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding with Chinese companies in the field of vehicle manufacturing in general, including the signing of Memorandum of Understanding for the establishment of a factory for the production of electric vehicle charging stations," al-Assar said.

He said his ministry was working at full capacity to expedite the completion of the localization and technology transfer of the electric bus production in Egypt to serve the transport sector.

"Egypt will soon witness a new industrial revolution to keep pace with the technological development in the field of manufacturing electric cars in the world," the minister said.

For his part, Ma Rentao, vice president of Foton Group and president of Foton International, hailed the delivery as a phased outcome achieved on the basis of the cooperation deal signed at the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation held in Beijing this April.

"We are pleased to see that our electric bus localization project has progressed steadily with the support of our Egyptian partners," he said at the ceremony.

Ma stressed that Foton will offer the complete support to Egypt's new energy vehicle project, noting that his company will show its overwhelming competitive edge in Egypt, and create considerable economic and social value for Egypt.

Li Wei, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, said the Beijing municipal government has always supported its enterprises to compete on the world stage and to participate in building infrastructure and improving people's livelihood in partner countries along the "Belt and Road."

"This smooth delivery of the first batch of Foton pure electric buses in Cairo is the best example," he said.

The Chinese official said that promoting the use of pure electric buses in cities such as Cairo and Alexandria is a rational measure to improve the atmosphere and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.

The economic and industrial cooperation between Egypt and China has been growing over the past years under China's Belt and Road Initiative, which aims to build a trade and infrastructure network that connects Asia with Africa and Europe along the trade routes of the ancient Silk Road to seek common development of the participating countries.

Many Chinese companies are currently carrying out various mega projects in Egypt in the fields of infrastructure, energy, construction and others.