Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a series of meetings with the heads of major Chinese companies on Sunday to discuss expanding investment in Egypt, particularly in renewable energy, water desalination, and electric vehicle manufacturing.
The meetings took place on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Plus summit in Tianjin, which Madbouly is attending on behalf of Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
WATER DESALINATION AND ENERGY
Madbouly met with Qingyun Kong, president of Jiangsu Feng-hai New Energy Desalination Development, a company recommended by Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting on Saturday. The prime minister said Egypt is seeking to localise the manufacturing of components for desalination plants and aims to produce 10 million cubic metres of desalinated water per day in the next five to six years.
In a separate meeting with Ni Chen, chairperson of China Energy Engineering Corporation, Madbouly reiterated the 10 million cubic metre daily target and said Egypt’s future goal is to raise production to 30 million cubic metres per day.
The head of China Energy said his company intends to invest in seawater desalination and is in consultations with Egypt’s electricity ministry on cooperation in power generation. He added that the company plans to invest $1 billion in Egypt over the next five years and has moved its regional headquarters to Cairo, reflecting its confidence in the Egyptian market.
Madbouly also discussed Egypt’s goal of producing 42% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030 and its interest in energy storage. He invited the company to help localise renewable energy components, noting Egypt’s annual demand of 5-6 gigawatts, in addition to demand for energy exports to Europe.
SUEZ CANAL ECONOMIC ZONE
The prime minister also met with Zhu Di Fu, chairperson of the Chinese holding company TEDA, the industrial developer of the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone.
Madbouly expressed his appreciation for TEDA’s successful model in attracting investment and said the development of the TEDA zone is a priority for the Egyptian government. He noted that an additional area would be allocated to the company within the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE).
“We look forward to attracting Chinese companies to work in the zone, especially in sectors that include renewable energy industries, electric vehicles, and their batteries,” Madbouly said, adding that he hopes the zone will also drive investment in water desalination.
The TEDA chairperson said that after ten years of operation in Egypt, the company has attracted 200 companies, injected $3bn in investments, paid $300m in taxes, and employed more than 10,000 workers.