China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone 8 Years of Wind and Rain Road: Development Coordinates Across Civilizations

On the afternoon of Beijing time (January 21, 2016), Chinese President Xi Jinping and Egyptian President Sisi, who were visiting Egypt, jointly attended the unveiling ceremony of the second phase of the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone.

Overseas economic and trade cooperation zones are the highlight of my country's foreign investment in recent years. Enterprises "going out" cannot fight alone, but must learn to "keep warm together". At present, my country has 6 cooperation zones in Africa, and the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone is considered to be the best developed. The construction of this cooperation zone was started in 2008, and now it has gradually developed from a Gobi on the Red Sea coast to a modern industrial park, known as the "Sino-Egyptian cooperation bridge".

Tianjin TEDA has been responsible for the construction, development and operation of the cooperation zone. our reporter interviewed zhang bingjun, chairman of tianjin teda investment holding co., ltd., in egypt.

For Tianjin TEDA, the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone is the development coordinate from one ancient civilization to another. In the 1980 s, TEDA started on a saline-alkali wasteland on the coast of the Bohai Sea, creating a miracle in China's development zone. More than ten years later, at the south entrance of the Suez Canal in northern Africa and the west bank of the Red Sea, TEDA faced another Gobi Desert.

zhang bingjun said that the suez region and the tianjin region are extremely similar. It is also more than 100 kilometers away from the capital and is adjacent to a port called Insuhana; there is also a big city beside it, called the provincial capital of Suez; in addition, its landform is also a Gobi Desert. This was the case in Tianjin when the state decided to build a development zone there.

The construction of an economic and trade cooperation zone in the desert Gobi is the idea of the leaders of the two countries. In 1998, the President of Egypt visited China and asked China to help the Egyptian economy after inspecting the Tianjin Development Zone; in the 2008 China-Africa Cooperation Forum, China proposed to establish six development zones in Africa, one of which is the Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Egypt. When Teda won the bid, the project started construction.

However, even though the geographical conditions are not very different, after all, it is developed on another piece of land. There are great differences between Egypt and China, ranging from basic national conditions, policies and laws to cultural customs and living habits. Collaboration was difficult from the start. Zhang Bingjun said that poor infrastructure, many hidden safety hazards, and low personnel efficiency are simply "not adapting everywhere, and there are difficulties every day".

Zhang Bingjun recalled that it was very difficult to send a fax, not to mention the need to surf the Internet, and it was more expensive to make a phone call. The highway from Cairo to Suez is just one, and there are often breakpoints.

Customs, culture and domestic are not the same, how to overcome? Zhang Bingjun gave an example. When the first batch of personnel came in the late 1990 s, the first thing they did was hard to imagine-sweeping the floor! They are all battlefield mines left over from the war in the Middle East. At that time, the natural conditions were very difficult, and the most incomprehensible thing was punctuality. It is normal to be one hour or two hours late when we have agreed to meet and talk about one thing. He didn't think so, he was still angry. Efficiency is not flattering. The three small buildings in the first phase of the development zone took ten years to build.

Zhang Bingjun said that most of the first dozen Chinese enterprises to come here are small and medium-sized enterprises. During that period of "huddling together for warmth", we were very united and did not distinguish each other. Poor medical conditions, try not to get sick; Rent a house, several rented together, like a family; Eat, neighbors help each other, you do it today, he does it tomorrow. In 2011, the political situation in Egypt was turbulent, and there were incidents of smashing and looting on the streets. The cooperation zone can avoid disaster, thanks to the "African brothers".

At that time, the Egyptian employees persuaded groups of Egyptians who did not know the truth to rob the park. The Chinese are not allowed to carry guns, they come home with guns to defend the park. The park escaped a disaster and was largely unscathed.

In this 1.3 square kilometer park, the friendship between the two peoples has been strengthened over time. The park has gradually developed and become the first choice for Chinese enterprises to invest in Egypt. There are legal advisers, customs offices, banks, hotels and apartments, bilingual translators and Sino-Egyptian consulting offices. Chinese companies that went abroad for the first time no longer had to encounter the dilemma of "being unaccompanied and struggling". Egypt's market advantage began to shine and heat.

Zhang Bingjun said that there are now 68 enterprises in the park, most of which are developing very well. They pay the Egyptian government nearly 0.2 billion Egyptian pounds in taxes a year. The best-developed Jushi Group, their model is very suitable for investment in Egypt. The raw materials are produced in Egypt and the quality is very good. Its products are exported to North America and Europe in large quantities. Egypt has no quotas and no barriers. In this way, it is close to the raw material on the one hand and the user on the other.

Today, the cooperation zone has entered a new stage of development in the face of China's "One Belt, One Road" strategy and Egypt's "Suez Canal Corridor" development plan. The park announced the expansion of the new expansion area of 6 square kilometers, which will be developed in three phases, which can accommodate 200 enterprises, attract investment of 3 billion US dollars, sales of 10 billion US dollars, provide more than 40000 employment opportunities, and finally form an international industrial base and modern new city of "industrial life.

Fuad, spokesman for the General Administration of the Suez Canal in Egypt, said that the Suez Economic and Trade Zone is currently the most dynamic heart of Egypt and the future of Egypt's development. It will boost the Egyptian economy, attract investors from all over the world and a large Egyptian workforce, and introduce Egypt to many international experiences. I believe that for Egypt, the Suez Economic and Trade Zone is the real future.