China could play a role in several major developmental projects in Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s office has said, after he met on Saturday with the Chinese culture minister, who was sent to Cairo as a special envoy on behalf of President Xi Jinping.

The projects include the Suez Canal zone project, which aims to create an industrial and logistic hub in the vicinity of the canal; and the one-million feddan land reclamation project, according to a statement by presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef quoted by Al-Ahram daily.

President Sisi is expected to fly to China next month to attend the victory celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

For his part, Chinese Minister of Culture Luo Shugang praised the new Suez Canal, an extension to the critical waterway which was inaugurated at a lavish ceremony last week, and said that the project would positively impact shipping traffic both for China and globally.

Before the expansion, the artificial waterway was already the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia, and was used by 8 per cent of global shipping traffic, according to the Suez Canal Authority.

Last December, Egypt and China signed five strategic partnership agreements in Beijing during the Egyptian president’s first visit to the world’s second-largest economy.

The strategic partnership includes cooperation between the two countries in the areas of economy, trade, electricity and industry.

In June, Egyptian Minister of Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel-Nour announced that Egypt has entered into an initial agreement with China on 15 projects worth about $10 billion.

Egypt runs a trade deficit with China, importing $5 billion worth of goods in 2013 / 14 and exporting $488 million, data from the Central Bank of Egypt shows.

China is Egypt’s fifth-largest trading partner after the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the US and Italy.