Dr. Sahr Nasr, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation met on 15 May 2017, with CEO of the Silk Road Fund Ms. Jin Qi, on the sidelines of her participation at the ‘One Belt, One Road’ Forum held in the Chinese capital Beijing.
Both sides discussed means of benefiting from the Fund’s financing opportunities provided to countries along the Silk Road. This within the framework of the initiative launched by President of China Xi JinPing to revive the ancient Silk Road and the framework of the possibility of cooperation with a number of international financial institutions in supporting a number of projects, and establishing joint ventures between the government and the private sector.
The Minister commended strategic, developmental and investment relations between Egypt and China, while expressing her aspirations to increase China’s ranking among the countries investing in Egypt, given that the number of Chinese companies operating in Egypt reached up to1300 companies. Nasr asserted that the New Investment Law offered several investment incentives that facilitate procedures for investors and contribute to supporting the private sector. In addition, the Minister gave an overview of a number of development and national projects of priority to the government, namely the New Administrative Capital and the Suez Canal Development Axis as well as a number of transportation projects. She pointed out that such projects had investment opportunities with significant returns.
Further, the Minister invited Ms. Qi to visit Egypt soon or delegate a mission to view such projects on ground, while asserting President el-Sisi’s keenness on implementing all joint projects between both countries. Within this framework, CEO of the Fund expressed their determination to contribute to supporting some of these projects.
On her part, CEO of the Silk Road Fund referred to the Fund’s role since its establishment in December 2014 in supporting investments and economic cooperation in collabouration with international financial institutions such as the World Bank (WB). This within the framework of the Silk Road’s economic belt initiative known as the ‘One Belt, One Road’ Initiative.
She mentioned that the Fund was considered the largest investment fund in China, noting that the Chinese President announced its establishment in December 2014 with a capital of USD 40 billion co-financed by a number of Chinese banks and institutions.
Both sides agreed on cooperation between Egypt’s MIIC and the Fund in financing Chinese investments in Egypt in the fields of infrastructure and construction and in financing joint ventures between the government and the private sector through injecting Chinese investments to accelerate implementation of joint ventures between Egypt and China. This in addition to increasing business incubators and developing youth skills in emerging projects in the free investment zones.
