Initiative opens up broad prospects
By Song Aiguo |
chinawatch.cn |
Updated: 2019-03-06 15:27
In the warm spring of April, the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be held in Beijing. It will be a gathering of leaders from China and BRI participating countries after the successful first forum in 2017. Leaders will build consensus, promote cooperation, contribute ideas and suggestions and discuss the future. Egypt is an important partner of the BRI and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will visit China to attend the event. As the Chinese ambassador to Egypt, I am overwhelmed with delight and full of expectation.
Opening the scrolls of history, we see the ancient Silk Road flourishing with camel caravans and business missions. It was as early as 2,000 years ago that the two great ancient civilizations of China and Egypt started the chapter of exchanges and mutual learning along the route of the ancient Silk Road. While recalling the past in the light of the present, we have reason to be delighted that our two countries are together writing a brand new chapter in the era within the BRI framework.
The grand initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road has opened up broad prospects for China and Egypt to strengthen cooperation in the new era. During his visit to China in the end of 2014, President Sisi made it clear that Egypt hoped to become a part of the BRI. President Xi Jinping’s historic visit to Egypt in January 2016 took China-Egypt relations to new heights.
During President Sisi’s second state visit to China in September 2018, he and President Xi reached new consensus on enhancing cooperation in various fields within the BRI framework. The great emphasis given by the two heads of state not only provides political and strategic guidance to the joint contribution to the BRI, but also injects fresh vitality and impetus to pragmatic cooperation.
China’s investment in Egypt is nearly $7 billion, 90 percent of which was in the last five years. The CBD of Egypt’s new administrative capital, the 10th of Ramadan railway project and several other major programs have been signed and launched. The China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone is attracting a number of big companies with its rapid development.
Take Jushi Group, an enterprise in the zone, for example. It not only helped Egypt fill the blank of fiberglass production in Africa, but also made Egypt the third largest producer of fiberglass in the world after the US and China. About 3,500 jobs have been created by the TEDA Zone, and $58 million of tax and fees generated for the Egyptian government.
In recent years, the amount covered in currency swaps, RMB loan and credit agreements between Chinese banks, insurers and Egyptian banks has reached several dozen billion US dollars. What’s more, there is a huge increase in mutual visits. It’s estimated that in 2018 around 400,000 Chinese tourists visited Egypt.
We are delighted to see the gratifying early harvests in various fields of China-Egypt cooperation in the new era. The BRI has brought about tangible benefits to peoples in participating countries including Egypt, and has made important contribution to global cooperation and common development. The Chinese Embassy in Egypt entrusted a local polling agency to conduct an opinion poll last year, which showed that 83 percent of the Egyptian interviewees believe that they could benefit from China’s development experience. And among the people who knew about the BRI, 80 percent hold a favorable view. It is China’s sincere wish to seek common development with Egypt and other participating countries through the BRI. And this initiative will surely win more and more support while presenting brighter and wider prospects.
History always bears reference to the future. The enormous progress achieved shows that Egypt has favorable conditions for the BRI and that with this sound starting chapter the following ones will be even greater. Looking forward, China and Egypt could promote complementarity and industrial synergy in many fields, explore the vast cooperation potential in the economy, trade, investment, energy, electricity, railway, port logistics and aerospace technology, strengthen strategic coordination and policy consultation and consolidate public support and cultural foundations for cooperation with the aim of producing more fruits of China-Egypt comprehensive strategic partnership within the BRI framework.
The BRI has taken solid steps forward and harvested satisfying early fruits, but we know that it will be a long-term, complex, arduous and systematic project. Difficulties and challenges are sure to abound, including different understanding of the initiative by various countries and salient non-traditional security risks. At the same time, there are also some forces in the world who are trying to disrupt and hold back its development. However, facts speak louder than words. The fruitful achievements reaped by China and participating countries in the past five years prove to the world that with no political strings attached or economic risks triggered, the BRI is dedicated to unleash its participants’ greatest potential for economic development.
This gives us the courage to confront challenges and hold firmly the conviction that the BRI is a road of prosperity, peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual-learning, win-win cooperation and common development. As President Xi Jinping put it: “We live at a time with an overwhelming trend toward peace and cooperation. In a world aspiring for peace and development, the Cold-War and zero-sum mentality looks even more out of place. Putting oneself on a pedestal or trying to immune oneself from adverse developments will get nowhere. Only peaceful development and cooperation can truly bring win-win or all-win results.”
As long as we stand shoulder by shoulder and work hand in hand, we will see sound and steady development of the BRI and make important contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and the building of an open, inclusive and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.
The second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will open among worldwide attention. I believe this is a rare opportunity for China and Egypt to synergize development strategies, enhance complementarity and promote common development in the new era. As a major country in both the Arab world and Africa, Egypt enjoys a unique position and first-mover advantage in the BRI.
President Sisi emphasizes his willingness to speed up the development of the BRI in the African continent with China in 2019 when Egypt holds the rotating presidency of the African Union. An authoritative Chinese research agency shows that African countries including Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya highly approve China’s influence in global and regional economic development and are positive about China’s future development.
We believe that as the first Arab and African country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, Egypt will keep playing a positive leading role for the BRI in the Arab world and Africa and promoting the building of the China-Arab and China-Africa community with a shared future at both multilateral and international levels. We hope that with concerted efforts of various parties, the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will draw new blueprints for China-Arab and China-Africa cooperation and that China and Egypt sail toward an even brighter prospect along the BRI.
Song Aiguo is ambassador of People’s Republic of China to Egypt.
The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.
All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.
In the warm spring of April, the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will be held in Beijing. It will be a gathering of leaders from China and BRI participating countries after the successful first forum in 2017. Leaders will build consensus, promote cooperation, contribute ideas and suggestions and discuss the future. Egypt is an important partner of the BRI and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will visit China to attend the event. As the Chinese ambassador to Egypt, I am overwhelmed with delight and full of expectation.
Opening the scrolls of history, we see the ancient Silk Road flourishing with camel caravans and business missions. It was as early as 2,000 years ago that the two great ancient civilizations of China and Egypt started the chapter of exchanges and mutual learning along the route of the ancient Silk Road. While recalling the past in the light of the present, we have reason to be delighted that our two countries are together writing a brand new chapter in the era within the BRI framework.
The grand initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road has opened up broad prospects for China and Egypt to strengthen cooperation in the new era. During his visit to China in the end of 2014, President Sisi made it clear that Egypt hoped to become a part of the BRI. President Xi Jinping’s historic visit to Egypt in January 2016 took China-Egypt relations to new heights.
During President Sisi’s second state visit to China in September 2018, he and President Xi reached new consensus on enhancing cooperation in various fields within the BRI framework. The great emphasis given by the two heads of state not only provides political and strategic guidance to the joint contribution to the BRI, but also injects fresh vitality and impetus to pragmatic cooperation.
China’s investment in Egypt is nearly $7 billion, 90 percent of which was in the last five years. The CBD of Egypt’s new administrative capital, the 10th of Ramadan railway project and several other major programs have been signed and launched. The China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone is attracting a number of big companies with its rapid development.
Take Jushi Group, an enterprise in the zone, for example. It not only helped Egypt fill the blank of fiberglass production in Africa, but also made Egypt the third largest producer of fiberglass in the world after the US and China. About 3,500 jobs have been created by the TEDA Zone, and $58 million of tax and fees generated for the Egyptian government.
In recent years, the amount covered in currency swaps, RMB loan and credit agreements between Chinese banks, insurers and Egyptian banks has reached several dozen billion US dollars. What’s more, there is a huge increase in mutual visits. It’s estimated that in 2018 around 400,000 Chinese tourists visited Egypt.
We are delighted to see the gratifying early harvests in various fields of China-Egypt cooperation in the new era. The BRI has brought about tangible benefits to peoples in participating countries including Egypt, and has made important contribution to global cooperation and common development. The Chinese Embassy in Egypt entrusted a local polling agency to conduct an opinion poll last year, which showed that 83 percent of the Egyptian interviewees believe that they could benefit from China’s development experience. And among the people who knew about the BRI, 80 percent hold a favorable view. It is China’s sincere wish to seek common development with Egypt and other participating countries through the BRI. And this initiative will surely win more and more support while presenting brighter and wider prospects.
History always bears reference to the future. The enormous progress achieved shows that Egypt has favorable conditions for the BRI and that with this sound starting chapter the following ones will be even greater. Looking forward, China and Egypt could promote complementarity and industrial synergy in many fields, explore the vast cooperation potential in the economy, trade, investment, energy, electricity, railway, port logistics and aerospace technology, strengthen strategic coordination and policy consultation and consolidate public support and cultural foundations for cooperation with the aim of producing more fruits of China-Egypt comprehensive strategic partnership within the BRI framework.
The BRI has taken solid steps forward and harvested satisfying early fruits, but we know that it will be a long-term, complex, arduous and systematic project. Difficulties and challenges are sure to abound, including different understanding of the initiative by various countries and salient non-traditional security risks. At the same time, there are also some forces in the world who are trying to disrupt and hold back its development. However, facts speak louder than words. The fruitful achievements reaped by China and participating countries in the past five years prove to the world that with no political strings attached or economic risks triggered, the BRI is dedicated to unleash its participants’ greatest potential for economic development.
This gives us the courage to confront challenges and hold firmly the conviction that the BRI is a road of prosperity, peace, cooperation, openness, inclusiveness, mutual-learning, win-win cooperation and common development. As President Xi Jinping put it: “We live at a time with an overwhelming trend toward peace and cooperation. In a world aspiring for peace and development, the Cold-War and zero-sum mentality looks even more out of place. Putting oneself on a pedestal or trying to immune oneself from adverse developments will get nowhere. Only peaceful development and cooperation can truly bring win-win or all-win results.”
As long as we stand shoulder by shoulder and work hand in hand, we will see sound and steady development of the BRI and make important contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and the building of an open, inclusive and beautiful world that enjoys lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity.
The second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will open among worldwide attention. I believe this is a rare opportunity for China and Egypt to synergize development strategies, enhance complementarity and promote common development in the new era. As a major country in both the Arab world and Africa, Egypt enjoys a unique position and first-mover advantage in the BRI.
President Sisi emphasizes his willingness to speed up the development of the BRI in the African continent with China in 2019 when Egypt holds the rotating presidency of the African Union. An authoritative Chinese research agency shows that African countries including Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya highly approve China’s influence in global and regional economic development and are positive about China’s future development.
We believe that as the first Arab and African country to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, Egypt will keep playing a positive leading role for the BRI in the Arab world and Africa and promoting the building of the China-Arab and China-Africa community with a shared future at both multilateral and international levels. We hope that with concerted efforts of various parties, the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation will draw new blueprints for China-Arab and China-Africa cooperation and that China and Egypt sail toward an even brighter prospect along the BRI.
Song Aiguo is ambassador of People’s Republic of China to Egypt.
The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.
All rights reserved. Copying or sharing of any content for other than personal use is prohibited without prior written permission.
