Ambassador Liao Liqiang's signed article praises TEDA cooperation zone

Ambassador Liao Liqiang's signed article praises TEDA cooperation zone
Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs website

On February 18, 2022, the Egyptian newspaper Pyramid Online published an article signed by Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang, "China's economic development injects strong momentum into Sino-Egyptian economic and trade cooperation", in which it was pointed out that the Sino-Egyptian TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone has directly or indirectly solved employment for more than 40000 Egyptian people ...... The full text is as follows:

In 2021, China will take multiple measures to promote the sustained recovery and development of the national economy, deepen reform and opening up and innovation, ensure people's livelihood effectively, take new steps in building a new development pattern, achieve new results in high-quality development, and achieve a good start to the 14th Five-Year Plan. Despite the ups and downs of the global epidemic, the accelerated evolution of a century of change and the world entering a period of turmoil and change, China has scientifically coordinated epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, maintained good economic growth, and achieved fruitful results in China-Egypt economic and trade cooperation in various fields. China's economic development will certainly inject new momentum and vitality into China-Egypt cooperation.

Basic Situation of China's Economic Operation 1. 2021

Economic growth is among the highest in major economies. The annual GDP was 114367 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), up 8.1 year on year. According to the latest forecast of the International Monetary Fund, China's GDP will account for about 18% of the world economy, and its contribution to the world economy will increase steadily year after year.

Foreign trade and the use of foreign capital grew rapidly. The total import and export volume of goods in the whole year was 39.1 trillion billion yuan, up 21.4 percent year on year. Export scale and international market share hit a new high. The actual use of foreign capital in the whole year was 1.15 trillion billion yuan, up 14.9 percent year on year.

New industries and new formats thrive. The value added of high-tech manufacturing increased by 18.2 percent year-on-year. The new generation of information technology to accelerate the penetration of new consumer areas such as online shopping, mobile payment, online and offline integration.

The protection of people's livelihood is strong and effective. Residents' income growth has basically kept pace with economic growth, the results of poverty alleviation have been consolidated and expanded, investment in people's livelihood has continued to increase, and investment in education and health has increased by 11.7 and 24.5 respectively year-on-year. New urban employment continued to expand, with 12.69 million new jobs created throughout the year. The average urban survey unemployment rate was 5.1 percent, down 0.5 percentage points from the previous year.

The Chinese government adheres to the general tone of seeking progress amidst stability, increases support for the real economy, continues and improves some tax and fee reduction policies, implements new structural tax cuts, and promotes the reduction of the cost of land, network and road freight for enterprises. Deepen reform and opening up to optimize the business environment, build a carbon peak carbon neutral top-level design and working mechanism, in-depth implementation of regional development strategies, deepen practical cooperation in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and promote the RCEP to take effect as scheduled.

2. Sino-Egyptian Economic and Trade Cooperation Prospects Bright

In 2021, China remained Egypt's largest trading partner for the eighth consecutive year, and it was the country with the most active and fastest growth in investment in Egypt in recent years. In the whole year, the total trade volume between China and Egypt reached 19.98 billion billion US dollars, up 37.3 percent from the same period last year, of which China imported 1.71 billion US dollars from Egypt, up 85.2 percent from the same period last year. In the first three quarters, China's direct investment in the whole industry in Egypt was 0.223 billion billion US dollars, an increase of 1.5 times over the same period last year. Major projects such as the Central Business District of the New Administrative Capital and the Ramadan 10th City Light Rail have progressed smoothly; the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone has directly or indirectly solved employment for more than 40000 Egyptian people. Since the outbreak of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, China has provided Egypt with three batches of aid materials and four batches of vaccines, assisted Egypt in establishing a mask production line, and signed an agreement with Egypt to localize the production of Chinese vaccines, making Egypt the first country in Africa to have the production capacity of the new coronary vaccine. This year, China will continue to provide vaccine support to Egypt. sino-egyptian economic and trade cooperation has been fruitful.

Not long ago, President Sisi personally attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics and held bilateral meetings with President Xi Jinping. The leaders of the two countries highly affirmed the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Egypt and said that they would work together to continue to promote the dovetailing of the Belt and Road Initiative with Egypt's 2030 Vision, continue to unite in the fight against the epidemic and work together to meet various challenges. This is not only the wish of the leaders of the two countries, but also the common wish of the two peoples.

2022 is a year of in-depth development, challenges and opportunities in the world. While developing itself, China will go hand in hand with Egypt, continuously deepen practical cooperation with Egypt in various fields, and firmly move towards the goal of building a China-Egypt community with a shared future in the new era.