Symposium held in Cairo to mark progress of China-Egypt ties

CAIRO, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- A symposium was held in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Tuesday to mark the remarkable progress achieved by China and Egypt in promoting bilateral ties in the past decade.

During the symposium, sponsored by China International Communications Group (CICG), Zhang Tao, charge d'affaires of the Chinese embassy in Egypt, hailed the fruitful cooperation between the two countries in the past decade.

Frequent high-level exchanges between China and Egypt in the past 10 years have consolidated political mutual trust, while the bilateral trade volume has nearly doubled to about 20 billion U.S. dollars during the period, Zhang said.

The landmark projects of the central business district of Egypt's new administrative capital, Egypt's first electrified light rail transit, and the New Alamein City in northwestern Egypt, which are built by Chinese companies, have become "new symbols of pragmatic cooperation between China and Egypt," he said.

Those projects, which have also trained a large number of professional and technical personnel in the Arab country, have contributed to Egypt's economic and social development, the Chinese envoy added.

Essam Sharaf, former Egyptian prime minister and head of the Sharaf Foundation for Sustainable Development, said the bilateral trade between Egypt and China has boomed over the past 10 years while the diplomatic ties have become stronger.

He lauded China's generous assistance to Egypt in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and making Egypt the first African country capable of producing COVID-19 vaccines.

Nasser Abdel-Aal, professor of Chinese language and vice dean of the Faculty of Al-Alsun (Languages) of the Ain Shams University, also commended the fruitful China-Egypt cooperation under the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, under which the two states have cooperated in building a number of projects in the fields of energy, construction, and transportation.

Hu Baomin, head of the CICG's Center for Europe and Africa, said in a speech via video link from China that "the China-Egypt relations are not only a model for cooperation between China and Arab countries, but also a model for cooperation between China and developing countries."