The Life of Tianjin Branch: The "Miracle of TEDA" Written by the Red Sea"

Source, Tianjin Branch Life

Reporter Han Yanling Liu Xin

 

 

In the video conference room of China Africa TEDA Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Africa TEDA"), two wall clocks on the wall show Beijing time and Cairo time respectively. The pointer is ticking. At this moment, in Egypt, thousands of miles away, a group of partners are fighting at the project site of the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone (hereinafter referred to as the "TEDA Cooperation Zone").

Since the start of construction in 2008, China-Africa TEDA has participated in and witnessed the growth of the TEDA Cooperation Zone from a faltering start to a stride forward. In the past 15 years, this green modern industrial new city, based on the "TEDA model" of Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone, integrating production capacity cooperation and integration of industry and city, has sprung up in the Gobi desert along the Red Sea.

This magical land for the friendship between China and Egypt has now become a demonstration project for China-Africa cooperation in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", which has effectively promoted China-Egypt economic and trade exchanges and investment cooperation to continuously make new progress.

 

 

Application of "TEDA Model" in Egypt

Driving eastward from Cairo, the capital of Egypt, requires crossing more than 120 kilometers of vast and desolate Gobi to reach the TEDA cooperation zone at the port of Sukhnaiquan in Suez Province. With a huge stone tablet engraved with the words "China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone" in the middle of the road, the logo of "TEDA" representing the English acronym of Tianjin Economic and technological Development Zone jumped into view.

Along the flat and wide asphalt road in the TEDA cooperation zone, as far as you can see, there are many modern standard factories, container trucks shuttling back and forth, tall palm trees and date palm trees on both sides of the road cast cool green shade, a tree of pink and white bougainvillea dotted with office buildings, hotel apartments, and commercial banks in the park, the TEDA Cooperation Zone is like an oasis embedded in the vast desert, surging with vitality.

 

 

For the "TEDA people", the construction and development of the TEDA cooperation zone seems to be a "reincarnation of destiny".

In 1984, the first batch of "TEDA people" pioneered and forged ahead on the saline-alkali wasteland along the Bohai Bay, and built a national-level development zone that attracted the attention of the world. It not only created a miracle of economic development, but also inherited and carried forward. The "TEDA Spirit" with unique connotation ".

In 1998, when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak visited China, he felt the rapid development of China's development zones and expressed the hope that China could help Egypt carry out development and construction in Suez, which is very similar to Tianjin Economic and technological Development Zone in terms of geographical location and geological environment. to promote regional development. The "TEDA people" with pioneer genes in their blood undertook this glorious mission, embarked on a journey to a foreign country, and cultivated new ideals and hopes on the shores of the Red Sea.

Even though there is little difference in geographical conditions, there are great differences between China and Egypt, ranging from basic national conditions, policies and laws to cultural customs and living habits, and cooperation has been fraught with difficulties from the very beginning. In addition to the factors such as the low proportion of Chinese shares in the cooperation projects in the early stage, the "TEDA people" stumbled in the first 10 years in Egypt.

In 2008, the TEDA Cooperation Zone, which was approved by the Ministry of Commerce of my country to become a national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone, was officially established. The China-Africa TEDA, jointly funded by Tianjin TEDA Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. and China-Africa Development Fund Co., Ltd., has since become the TEDA Cooperation Zone. The domestic investor officially leads the development of the project.

 

 

However, in terms of development concepts and management concepts, China and Egypt will inevitably collide and run-in. China-Africa TEDA hopes to "copy" the model of the Tianjin Industrial Park to Egypt, create an investment environment similar to developed countries, create a simulated international industrial park, and use industrial clusters to drive the process of regional industrialization and urbanization, but this is similar to Egypt. The conservative concept of "obtaining enterprise investment before development" is not the same. Fortunately, with the continuous deepening of my country's reform and opening up, economic development has achieved world-renowned achievements, and China's park construction concept has gradually won the recognition of Egypt.

At the same time, the "TEDA people" have also injected the park design and development concepts such as green development, ecological livability, and industry-city integration into the TEDA cooperation zone, always in accordance with the goals of "high-level regional planning" and "high-standard park construction". Create a good industrial, business, cultural and living environment.

With the continuous improvement of infrastructure and the influx of investment projects, this high-profile "Belt and Road" overseas platform, "Jinmen Pearl", has risen on the Red Sea coast. At present, the 1.34-square-kilometer starting area of the TEDA Cooperation Zone has been fully developed, and the four leading industries of new building materials, petroleum equipment, high and low pressure equipment, and machinery manufacturing have been initially formed; the 6-square-kilometer expansion area has also been settled by 40 companies, attracting The agreed investment exceeds 0.3 billion US dollars.

 

 

From "Industrial Cluster" to "Industry-business Collaboration"

Walking in the TEDA cooperation zone, there are many LOGO of China's top 500 enterprises and even the world's top 500 enterprises. Any employee of China Africa TEDA will proudly tell you that this is the industrial park with the best comprehensive environment, the highest investment density, the highest unit output and the densest concentration of Chinese enterprises in Egypt, the industrial chain of "lateral chain" has been formed.

This pride is strong. In July this year, the TEDA Cooperation Zone ushered in its 15th birthday, and at the same time handed over a brilliant report card: by the end of July, the cooperation zone had attracted nearly 145 enterprises to settle in, with an actual investment of more than 1.7 billion US dollars, a cumulative sales volume of more than 3.8 billion US dollars, and a tax payment of more than 0.2 billion US dollars, directly solving the employment problem of more than 5000 people, and the industry driving employment of about 50000 people. Egyptian Prime Minister Madbouli spoke highly of the TEDA Cooperation Zone and praised it as "an ideal model for the development of Egyptian industrial parks".

Over the past 15 years, with the continuous strengthening of investment in hardware infrastructure and service facilities, the TEDA Cooperation Zone has not only promoted the appreciation of surrounding land, but also brought advanced service concepts into Egypt, attracting a large number of world-class enterprises to settle in the park. While the excellent investment promotion results have brought huge economic benefits to Egypt, it has also improved the technical level of related industries in Egypt and filled some market gaps in the entire Middle East and even Africa.

Established in 2012, China Jushi Egypt Glass Fiber Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jushi Egypt") has helped the Egyptian glass fiber industry to grow from scratch, effectively driving the vigorous development of the upstream and downstream industrial chains such as local minerals and packaging materials, and helping Egypt While upgrading the manufacturing industry, it has also cultivated a large number of talents. Today, the stones like hills, through the megalithic Egypt, become as white as silk, as hard as steel, as light as paper fiberglass, and are transported to all parts of the world through Egyptian ports. At present, one out of every three wind blades in the world uses glass fiber from Boulder Egypt. The high-tech "Made in China" has made Egypt the third largest glass fiber producer in the world and the largest in Africa.

 

 

In the TEDA cooperation zone, the localization of talents has been pushed to a new height. The proportion of Egyptian employees has exceeded 90%. Both Egyptians and Chinese have equal promotion opportunities. The localization rate of middle and senior managers has reached more than 80%. In recent years, the cooperation zone has reserved a number of excellent park development and construction management talents for Egypt, and enterprises entering the zone have also trained and exported a number of professional technical workers and enterprise managers for Egypt. Through regular training and organizing outstanding Egyptian employees and managers to visit and study in China, the management level and service concept of Egyptian employees have been greatly improved.

At the same time, TEDA cooperation zone is also upgrading from "industrial cluster" to "producer collaboration. Since 2021, the cooperation zone has promoted the operation of the first Chinese-funded bonded warehouse project in Egypt, focusing on building an international commodity distribution center and an automobile and spare parts distribution center, and promoting China's new energy vehicles, second-hand cars and other famous and high-quality products to Egypt and even the Middle East and North Africa.

Teda on the "Belt and Road" is going out along the "Belt and Road", which is the new normal for the future development of Chinese enterprises. As the main body of the development of the TEDA Cooperation Zone, China-Africa TEDA is duty-bound to assume the important task of serving investors. While building the hardware of the park, it has begun to study, sort out and translate the local policies, regulations, and approval processes in Egypt. A series of regulations and policy documents that foreign companies need to refer to when investing in Egypt are translated into Chinese guides for investors to refer.

On the other hand, as the operator of the park, in order to help enterprises take root, grow and mature in the park as soon as possible, China-Africa TEDA also provides high-quality supporting services for full-cycle project management for enterprises entering the zone, and comprehensively solves the problems faced by enterprises entering the zone. The problem enables enterprises entering the zone to concentrate all their energy on production, greatly reduce costs, and increase profits for park operations, achieving a win-win situation for enterprises and park developers.

 

 

With the rapid development of TEDA Cooperation Zone, TEDA Holdings actively summarizes and refines the development and operation mode of overseas industrial parks to help the sustainable development of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. At present, the TEDA Cooperation Zone has become a model and experience exporter for the overseas cooperation zone in the construction of the "Belt and Road". The "TEDA Overseas Model" summarized based on the TEDA model and combined with the development and construction experience of the TEDA Cooperation Zone has also been consulted. The service method is applied to more than ten overseas park projects of Chinese companies along the "Belt and Road.

Standing at a new starting point, the release of the "TEDA Cooperation Zone 2030 Vision-Strategic Upgrade Plan" will further promote the "three major projects" of improving industrial agglomeration capabilities, industrial service capabilities, and industrial supporting capabilities, and help Tianjin continue to expand its opening up. Breadth and depth. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the "Belt and Road Initiative" initiative. The TEDA cooperation zone, which thrives under the framework of "Belt and Road Initiative", will continue to explore high-level construction, promote high-quality development, and build an interconnected international cooperation platform. We will actively share China's opportunities with the world, and make the most practical efforts to present the next 10 years and make TEDA contributions to promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

 

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