Egypt: Sisi to Visit China on December 23

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is visiting China on December 23-24 to boost bilateral political and economic ties, according to the Egyptian presidency’s statement.

Egyptian ministers travelled to Beijing on Monday to prepare for Sisi’s visit to China.

The Egyptian ministerial delegation to China includes Trade and Industry Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour, International Cooperation Minister Naglaa El-Ahwan, Investment Minister Ashraf Salman and Transportation Minister Hany Dahy. The delegation is to discuss how to enhance commerce with China and encourage Chinese investment in Egypt, especially in the electricity and energy sectors.

China is now attractive to the whole world, Naglaa al-Ahwani said during an interview with Xinhua, adding: “China is one of the most important states and the most growing countries across the world with a very huge potential for development,” she said.

Egypt has recently established a cabinet unit specified for China led by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, including a number of key ministers as members to study fields of cooperation with China.

“The concerned ministers provided a number of project proposals to be tackled with the Chinese side before, during and after Sisi’s visit to Beijing.”

“A delegation including the ministers of transport, electricity, investment and myself, will go to China on Sunday in an attempt to study these projects with the Chinese side.”

The minister believes that Chinese companies can efficiently contribute to the development of the Suez Canal region.

“We seek to propose these projects now and they will be further discussed during the visit, and in a later stage they will be presented more accurately and announced in the economic conference in Egypt in March 2015,” she said.