Boom of Chinese direct investments 2012-09-04

Egypt: China to invest Usd 3 bln in two years 

Egypt is expecting 3 billion dollars in direct Chinese investments over the next two years, Al Ahram daily newspaper quoted Egyptian Minister for Planning and International Cooperation Ashraf El-Araby as saying on Monday.

The announcement follows on President Mohammed Morsi's national visit to Beijing last week, his first such visit to a non-Arab country. The numbers are impressive given that 2006-2011 Chinese investments in Egypt equaled just 160 million dollars, according to Al Ahram newspaper.

The Egyptian leadership came home from that mission with 14 bilateral agreements, the minister said. Among them are a packet of 75 million dollars in subsidies, with the first tranche to arrive within weeks (against 100 million dollars in Chinese subsidies over the past 20 years), and a 200 million dollar loan from the China Development Bank to the National Bank of Egypt for small and medium business investments. China is as well sending 300 cars to the Interior Ministry, which recently received 700 vehicles from the Asian power, El-Araby said.