Interview: China Int'l Import Expo serves as platform for China's opening-up to world -- Egyptian businessman

CAIRO, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai is a key event to strengthen China's opening up to the world, said Mostafa Ibrahim, vice president of the Chinese-Egyptian Business Council.

The expo is held at a very critical time when the world economy has been hit by increasing energy prices and severe stagnation and inflation rates, but China insists on facing the global challenges by extending its market for overseas merchants and businessmen, Ibrahim told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"China is a market for nearly 20 percent of the world's population and the CIIE represents a significant platform for exporting products" to the Asian country, he added.

Unlike other countries that seek to maximize their cash currency resources by reducing imports, China encourages other countries to invest in the Chinese market, he said, noting that the expo is a good marketing platform for Egyptian textiles and fruit products.

During the past three years, all world economies have suffered the repercussions of COVID-19 and the disruption of supply chains, but China has achieved relatively good growth rates, he said.

"In my 35 visits to China, including two times of participation in the CIIE, I see every time remarkable and rapid progress in all fields," he said.

"China has strong infrastructure, roads, ports, and transportation. From my experience, I have never experienced logistics problems in my business in China," he added.

China also proposed a development initiative that has benefited the world, he said, referring to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

He said the BRI and related health and green endeavors by the Chinese government have not only boosted China's trade volume, but also promoted China's relations with other countries.

Egypt has benefited from the BRI, he said, citing factories in Ain Sokhna and northeastern Cairo, the Central Business District in the new administrative capital and the New Alamein City along the Mediterranean Sea.