Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat met with China’s Ambassador in Cairo Liao Liqiang on Monday to discuss strengthening cooperation and the developments in ongoing projects between the two countries prior to the Arab-Chinese Summit that will be held in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on 8 December.

During the meeting, Al-Mashat, stressed the depth of Egyptian-Chinese relations and their shared strategy, noting that they are witnessing a strong push over the past years based on common development priorities and the Egyptian side’s keenness to benefit from China’s development experience.

The minister also indicated that the Arab-Chinese summit will represent a strong impetus and a continuation of the development of relations between the Arab world and China in order to open more prospects for cooperation, exchanging technological expertise, and enhancing development cooperation efforts.

Furthermore, the meeting discussed the position of projects and grant documents that are to be signed soon, including a project to supply four sets of mobile vehicle systems equipment for the Ministry of Transportation, a project to establish a vocational training centre in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, and a feasibility study grant for a biosafety laboratory project to support research on viruses, epidemics and pandemics.

In this regard, Al-Mashat affirmed her ministry’s keenness on continuous coordination between multilateral and bilateral development partners and the relevant national authorities and ministries in order to advance relations, accelerate the pace of development cooperation, and overcome all challenges that prevent this.

In a related context, the minister stressed that the Egyptian state is keen to strongly involve the private sector, and that it is open to cooperation with the Chinese private sector in order to localise industry, transfer and exchange modern technologies, and expand the scope of cooperation to include all fields and increase green investments.

For his part, Liao congratulated Al-Mashat on the success and distinguished organisation of the COP27, saying: “We congratulate Egypt, led by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, for accomplishing this mission, which came at an exceptional time that the world is going through. The Republic of China was keen to participate actively in the summit and to provide all support to Egypt for its success.”

The ambassador also pointed out that the Arab-Chinese Summit will represent an opportunity to strengthen Egyptian-Chinese relations in light of the Chinese side’s keenness to strengthen its relations with Arab and African countries, which have already witnessed a strong start and push under the leadership of the Chinese president and his Egyptian counterpart, explaining that China is looking forward to more joint projects with the Egyptian government.

It is worth noting that the total cooperation portfolio with China amounts to about $1.2bn for the implementation of many projects in various development sectors, including electricity, health, education, vocational training, and others, including $335m in development grants.

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