Chinese foreign ministers have been doing a remarkable tradition for 33 years by making their first overseas trip to Africa at the beginning of each new year.
This move shows how much China values its friendship with Africa and the depth of China-Africa bilateral relations.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is expected to receive his Chinese counterpart Chen Gang on Sunday at the ministry’s headquarters in Maspero.
The two ministers will hold bilateral talks, which will be followed by a joint press conference.
Chen's visit aligns with an African tour that includes Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, and Benin, marking his first foreign visit since the beginning of 2023.
The Asian country has been sending its foreign minister to Africa on an annual basis for 33 years since 1991.
The visit highlights Beijing’s great interest in developing its ties with the second-largest continent. It also underlines the solid friendship between China and many African nations, including Egypt.
Egypt has all the potential and capabilities through which it can make a quantum leap in the form of economic relations between the two countries, in addition to attracting many Chinese companies and businesses to be its industrial center in the Arab Republic.
Chinese FM Visit's Importance after Upgrading Relations to Strategic Partnership
The upcoming visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister has a deeper importance, especially after upgrading the mutual relations to a strategic partnership in 2014.
Moreover, Egypt and African countries appreciate this visit due to the special mutual ties between China and Africa.
China is one of the most important trading partners to Egypt, as the trading exchange between the two countries increased to $12.7 billion in 2022, instead of $11.9 billion in 2021.
China knows the value of Egypt as a gate to Africa, therefore, Beijing is always keen to deal with Egypt as an ally and strategic partner in the region.
The visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang to Egypt and a number of African countries comes from different files with economic, developing, and investing levels alongside the political ones.
A lot of topics will be discussed during the tour but in my opinion, underscoring the Chinese-African partnership, especially in the spots of strategic contact, is a significant target of the tour.
The new strategy of China comes in response to the latest US and Russian moves with the coordination between Russia and China on this topic, in addition to shedding light on the developmental level more than the economy and politics.
China represents itself in the economic field by linking its economies with African projects and systems, and not necessarily through "The Belt and the Road." In addition, Beijing is seeking, today, to enhance its presence in Africa and implement its agreements with African countries.
This comes as a response to the American and Russian activity in this context and a search for a more valuable Chinese presence in Africa in the upcoming period.
China has important investments in many African countries, including Egypt
The Chinese government enjoys great economic, cultural, and political relations with many African countries, which contributed a lot to achieving human, financial and economic development for many of them, even if there are many debts.
In 2019, China and Egypt signed many agreements in various fields, especially infrastructure and industrialization projects in Egypt.
These projects come within the framework of the Chinese “Belt and Road” initiative, which aims to achieve mutual development among the countries participating in the initiative through mutual gain.
The China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) a leading international company, is constructing a huge financial and business district in the New Administrative Capital, which houses the tallest skyscraper in Africa (385-meter-high)
Other large Chinese companies are jointly working on the implementation of a number of giant energy projects in Egypt, including Sinohydro, Dongfang Electric, Shanghai Electric, State Grid, and Huawei.
In September 2019, the Egyptian and Chinese sides announced the start of the implementation of the “MisrSat 2” satellite project, which is funded by China.
Last January, Egypt, and China signed an agreement to fund the Beijing government with a grant of 72 million US dollars
The grant aimed to build the Egyptian satellite, which is a small satellite for remote sensing with very high accuracy
China is considered Egypt's largest trading partner and has the highest investment growth rate in Egypt
The volume of trade exchange between China and Egypt hit a record high of $13.87 billion in 2018.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s exports to China rose to $1.8 billion for the first time, according to official statistics of the two countries
Chinese investments in Egypt
The volume of direct Chinese investments in Egypt amounted to 7 billion US dollars, through 1,500 Chinese companies that provide 30,000 job opportunities for Egyptians.
The volume of Egyptian exports to China amounted to 1.5 billion dollars during the 9 months of 2022, compared to 11.1 billion dollars for the same period in 2021, in addition to the increase in the value of Chinese investments in Egypt during the 2021/2022 FY to 563 million dollars, compared to 485 million dollars in the previous year 2020/2021 FY.
The year 2019 saw a remarkable increase in cultural cooperation between Egypt and China, as Egyptian and Chinese artists and cultural and musical delegations paid mutual visits.
The two countries have also sought to strengthen their education, science, and technology cooperation. In 2019, China provided more than 300 scholarships for Egyptians to complete master's and PhDs degrees, according to the Chinese embassy in Cairo.
Chinese influxes revive the Egyptian tourism sector
The influx of Chinese tourists will revive the Egyptian tourism sector, with more than half a million Chinese tourists in 2018.
It is expected that the number of Chinese tourists will be greater in 2023; especially since Egypt has exempted Chinese tourists from visa requirements
The exemption allows obtaining visas upon arrival in Egyptian territory if the tourists are part of a tourist group organized by a tourist agency
In November 2019, EgyptAir announced that it would operate its first direct flights to the Chinese city of Hangzhou, with a new air route to stimulate tourism to Egypt.
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