Sowing Youth Along the Red Sea Coast, Safeguarding Maritime Ventures with Warmth—A Tribute to Song Caicen, an Outstanding Communist Party Member of Tianjin and Assistant General Manager of Sino‑Africa TEDA.

Source of Information | TEDA Holdings WeChat Official Account

Song Caiqin, female, Han ethnicity, born in February 1989, a member of the Communist Party of China, currently serves as Assistant to the General Manager at Sino‑African Teda Investment Co., Ltd. In April 2016, she was awarded the Tianjin May Day Labor Medal by the Tianjin Federation of Trade Unions.

Uphold our ideals and convictions, and strive to contribute to the joint development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

With a初心 as bright as a torch and a mission firmly on our shoulders, Comrade Song Caicen has consistently taken Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as her guiding principle. She has deeply studied the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s series of important speeches on jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative, and, with the sincerity and steadfastness of a Communist Party member, has put her original aspiration and mission into practice on the front lines overseas, ensuring that the Party’s fundamental purpose permeates every detail and every moment of her daily work.

From 2022 to 2023, amid a complex and ever‑changing international landscape and severe domestic and global economic challenges, she stepped up with unwavering resolve in times of crisis. Taking responsibility proactively, she remained steadfast at her overseas post, demonstrating the bold spirit of “pressing forward all the more when faced with hardship” as she led her team to confront difficulties head‑on and break through entrenched obstacles. During those months, she spent her days shuttling between corporate negotiations and government coordination, while at night she meticulously analyzed operational bottlenecks and devised strategies to drive progress—withstanding immense pressure and managing risks to carve out a new path for development amidst adversity. Ultimately, under her leadership, her team successfully attracted 20 renowned industrial enterprises—including Egypt’s leading steel project, China State Construction Steel Structure, Guangdong Wanhe, and Dazhi New Materials—to establish operations within the zone, resulting in land sales exceeding one square kilometer. On October 17, 2023, witnessed by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, landmark agreements were signed for the western expansion of the TEDA Cooperation Zone, the Xinxing Cast Pipe 250,000‑ton ductile iron pipe project, the China Glass Egypt new‑energy glass initiative, and the Tianyi Chemical Egypt bromine extraction and flame‑retardant project. Each contract and each project not only helped the company surmount its challenges and enter a phase of rapid growth but also laid a solid foundation for sustained revenue expansion and enhanced overall competitiveness of the industrial park.

Uphold our original aspiration and mission, and serve as a facilitator for the development of overseas enterprises.

“Serving enterprises means serving the Belt and Road Initiative and fulfilling the original aspiration and mission of Party members,” said Comrade Song Caicen. He has consistently kept the urgent needs, difficulties, and concerns of companies operating in the zone at heart, acting as a caring ally and steadfast guardian of their development, and, through concrete actions and unwavering dedication, helping Chinese‑invested enterprises overseas to thrive under a clear and promising sky.
In 2022, the global wave of U.S. interest-rate hikes triggered a rapid outflow of dollars from Egypt. Within just a few months, the Egyptian pound depreciated by as much as 52%, and a severe dollar shortage became a persistent, intractable challenge across all sectors of the economy. Most manufacturing firms in the TEDA Cooperation Zone rely on converting to U.S. dollars to import raw materials from China; the difficulty of obtaining foreign exchange has acted as a major obstacle, pushing many enterprises into dire operational straits. Witnessing the anxiety of these companies, she resolved to tackle this formidable issue head-on. Leading her team, she took proactive steps, shuttling back and forth between Egyptian government agencies and the Commercial Section of the Chinese Embassy in Egypt. Time and again, she emphasized the broader picture of regional development, patiently highlighting the export‑earning capacity of companies operating within the TEDA Cooperation Zone and meticulously explaining the positive implications of promoting cross‑border RMB settlement in Egypt. Over two years, with unwavering perseverance, she ultimately secured approval from the Egyptian government, allowing Chinese‑invested enterprises in the zone to register investments and conduct international trade in RMB. This groundbreaking achievement effectively addressed the longstanding challenges of foreign‑exchange conversion difficulties and substantial exchange‑rate losses faced by companies in the zone, laying a solid foundation for the smooth advancement of RMB usage in cross‑border transactions in Egypt.

Leading with innovation, we serve as the architects of overseas park upgrades.

Innovation is the primary driving force behind development, and a sense of responsibility is the defining characteristic of Party members. In 2024, Comrade Song Caicen returned to China to assume her post; though her role has changed, her original aspirations remain unchanged, and her sense of duty endures. She has proactively taken on the critical responsibilities of corporate strategic research, investment, and project planning, fully leveraging her professional expertise to devise innovative solutions and enhance efficiency, thereby contributing to the upgrading and sustainable development of the TEDA Cooperation Zone.

She pioneered a collaborative model of “basic land‑use fees plus revenue sharing,” successfully securing an additional 2.86 square kilometers of land from the Egyptian government. She also introduced innovative investment and development approaches, concluding negotiations and implementing a “special insurance” partnership for the construction of factory facilities, thereby alleviating cash‑flow pressures during project development. Furthermore, she designed and validated development frameworks such as the “park‑within‑a‑park” model, accelerating project rollout. By 2025, she spearheaded the digital transformation and upgrading of the TEDA Cooperation Zone, centering on the “one cloud, one network, one platform” framework and focusing on three key pillars—enhancing operational efficiency, elevating management quality, and fostering the digital industry—to establish a benchmark digital cooperation zone characterized by advanced infrastructure, seamless core data integration, and a vibrant industrial ecosystem. However, Egypt’s digital infrastructure remains in its infancy, and this weak foundation poses significant challenges to the initiative. To address these issues, she led her team in meticulously surveying and mapping the park’s development roadmap, conducting extensive consultations with resident enterprises to identify their needs, and convening dozens of joint meetings with domestic and Egyptian technical teams to deliberate solutions to critical bottlenecks, ultimately delivering the first phase of upgrades through the most cost‑effective and practically feasible approach.

Lead by example and be a champion of the TEDA spirit.

“Party members must embody the spirit of party membership: they should not only excel in their own duties but also set a high standard and lead by example.” Comrade Song Caicen has always kept his party identity firmly in mind, leading by example and, through every word and deed, inspiring and motivating each of his colleagues.

At work, she has consistently upheld a pragmatic, down-to-earth approach, taking the lead and acting first in all matters. Whether tackling tough challenges during her overseas assignments or formulating strategic plans upon returning home, she has remained dedicated to her duties and pursued excellence, embodying the responsibility and commitment of a Communist Party member through concrete actions. To ensure the Teda spirit endures and its story is widely shared, she meticulously documented the development of the Teda Cooperation Zone, unearthed compelling anecdotes from its journey, and leveraged writing, the arts, and media to tell the Teda story and amplify China’s voice. In 2019, her case study “An Egyptian Amusement Park in the Desert,” with its vivid narrative and distinctive character, was selected as an outstanding example in the “Overseas Communication Innovation” category, making her one of only six enterprises nationwide to receive this honor. She led her team in forging deep partnerships with leading domestic and international media outlets—including Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, and Egypt’s Al-Sabaa newspaper—carefully establishing a trilingual communication framework in Chinese, Arabic, and English. Her efforts resulted in overseas coverage reaching over two million readers, significantly enhancing the Teda brand’s influence in the Middle East and African markets and helping the world better understand Teda and China.

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