Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng, as the Special Envoy of President Xi Jinping, led the trade and economic delegation of the Chinese government to attend the Economic Development Conference of Egypt held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, and delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the conference. The full text is as follows:
Your Excellency, President Abdelfattah al Sisi,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
It is my great pleasure to come to the beautiful Sharm el Sheikh and attend the Economic Development Conference of Egypt. This time, President Xi Jinping specially appoints me as the special envoy to be present, which fully reflects that China pays great attention to the traditional friendly cooperative relationship between China and Egypt. First of all, on behalf of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government, I would like to express my warm congratulations on the convening of the conference and my sincere thanks to the careful preparation and thoughtful arrangement of the government of Egypt.
Egypt is an important bridge linking Asia, Africa and Europe and occupies an important place in the region and even in the global pattern. We are happy to see that the Egyptian people formulate their development plan under the leadership of President Abdelfattah al Sisi, insist on promoting the economic reform, actively expand the market opening and strive to improve the business environment. We sincerely wish a prosperous development of Egypt under the leadership of President Sisi, a stable life for all the people and a greater progress in all social causes.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
Egypt is the first Arab and African country to establish the diplomatic relationship with China. China and Egypt enjoy profound traditional friendship and leaders of both countries attach great importance to the bilateral friendly cooperative relationship. When President Xi Jinping firstly visited Africa after his assumption of duty, he proposed the working policies of “sincerity, practicality, benignity and honesty” to Africa. Last year, he attended the ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Arab Cooperation in person and showed clearly the direction and goal of the Belt and Road Initiatives jointly constructed by China and Arab countries. Soon ater the assumption of office of President Sisi, he visited China and jointly announced to build the “comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Egypt” with President Xi Jinping, which enabled the relationship between the two countries to reach a new level.
In recent years, the trade and economic cooperation between China and Egypt has enjoyed a prosperous development. China has become the biggest trade partner of Egypt and both sides have conducted all-round cooperation in such areas as industry, energy, telecommunications and infrastructure. Chinese enterprises have invested more than US$5 billion in Egypt and created more than 10,000 jobs for local people. The Trade and Economic Area of Suez jointly built by both sides has attracted more than 30 enterprises and served as a favorable platform for enterprises of the two countries to conduct investment and cooperation;
At present, the global economic recovery is week with insufficient growth momentum. The development of all countries faces more server challenges and they need to support each other and stay together more than ever. Both China and Egypt are developing countries undertaking the common task of development. As a genuine friend of Egypt, China is willing to strengthen the cooperation with Egypt and jointly overcome current difficulties.
Firstly, the Belt and Road Initiatives should be jointly constructed. China is positively promoting the cooperative construction of the Belt and Road Initiatives and will give consideration to the development demands of countries along the line to provide more public products, expand the common interests with countries along the line and realize the common development. Egypt is located in the intersection of the ancient Land Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road and China is willing to strengthen policy communication and projects docking with Egypt to jointly construct the Belt and Road Initiatives.
Secondly, the infrastructure and industrial cooperation should be strengthened. China will continue to encourage substantial Chinese enterprises to actively carry out cooperation in Egypt, participate in the construction and operation of such infrastructure as ports, tunnels, railways and electric power, accelerate the construction process of the trade and economic area of Suez, increase investment in such industries as steel, building materials and automobiles in Egypt and expand cooperation in emerging fields like clean energy, aerospace and cultural tourism.
Thirdly, trade facilitation should be promoted. China is willing to work together with Egypt to further optimize the bilateral trade structure when constantly expanding the trade scales. We are willing to continue to encourage Chinese enterprises to actively import competitive products from Egypt and promote a more balanced development of bilateral trade. The Chinese market is open and we welcome more Egyptian products to enter into it. Besides, we hope that Egypt can work harder in exploring the Chinese market.
Fourthly, cooperation in international fields should be intensified. We support the efforts of Egypt to develop economy and improve people’s livelihood and we will continue to provide development assistance for Egypt within our capacity to improve the environment of business in Egypt. At the same time, we support Egypt in playing a more positive and constructive role in both international and regional affairs.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
As the largest developing country in the world, although its economic aggregate ranks the second, China still faces such challenges as unbalanced regional development and unreasonable economic structures. The Chinese government will unswervingly promote the reform of economic structure, try hard to improve the quality and benefit of development, accelerate constructing the new all-dimensional opening pattern, encourage enterprises to give full play to their advantages, dock the requirements of local markets, participate in the cooperation in overseas infrastructure construction and international capacity and promote such mature technologies and equipment of China as high-speed rail, aviation, electricity and telecommunication in the world by multiple ways.
This time, many Chinese enterprises take part in this grand meeting and they are optimistic about the market prospect and potential of Egypt and have strong interest in expanding businesses in Egypt. May the entrepreneurs at present seize opportunities to actively communicate and negotiate with each other, change the blueprint of cooperation and development into win-win fruits and jointly contribute wisdom and efforts to the development of Egypt and prosperity of the region.
At last, may the friendship and the trade and economic cooperation between China and Egypt surge forward ceaselessly like the Yangtze River and the Nile.
Thank you!
