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Monday, 16 January 2023

Chinese FM tells Shoukry Beijing has appetite for Egyptian infrastructure projects

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry yesterday, according to an Ittihadiya statement, on the final stop of an African tour that also saw the newly appointed Qin visit Ethiopia, Gabon, Angola, and Benin. Qin met separately with Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, according to VoA.

More Chinese inflows incoming? Qin stressed to El Sisi China’s desire to up its investments in local infrastructure projects, including those with links to China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, the statement reads. He also touched on efforts to attract Chinese private investment and tourism to Egypt in a presser following his meeting with Shoukry (watch, runtime: 32:00.)

SOUND SMART- China hasn’t had a huge hand in the state’s national infrastructure push thus far. Outside of the new capital business district and the light rail transit system, China has had little involvement financing infrastructure projects in Egypt, which has tended to rely far more heavily on western development finance institutions. A 2021 report estimated Egypt’s total sovereign and hidden debt to China to be in the region of USD 4.6 bn; small fry compared to Ethiopia (which owes USD 15.4 bn) or Africa’s most China-indebted country, Angola (with a USD 52.3 bn debt pile).

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