President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Chinese President Xi Jinping were on hand to witness the signing of 21 agreements and a memorandum of understanding in different sectors, including telecommunications, information technology, consulting, industry, and transport as well as a technical and economic cooperation agreement.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the Chinese government encourages and supports qualified companies to participate in Egyptian mega-projects.
The relations between China and Egypt have grown significantly in recent years. The Egyptian government is preparing to take further steps to activate development strategies and cooperate in the Chinese maritime silk road economic belt.
Meanwhile, Egypt signed an agreement with China to borrow loans of $1.8bn for a number of Egyptian banks. China Development Bank will lend Banque Misr $100m to finance strategic projects in Egypt and will lend $700m to the National Bank of Egypt (NBE). Moreover, the China Development Bank will lend Egypt $1bn as a deposit for the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to strengthen Egyptian foreign exchange reserves. The loan will be dispersed over 11 years divided into a three-year grace periods and an eight year repayment period at a small interest.
Egypt’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $16.445bn in December, down from $36bn before the 25 January Revolution of 2011.
