CAIRO: Egypt welcomes more Chinese investment and is expecting China to be Egypt s main investor, Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin told reporters on Monday evening. During an interview with Xinhua and other Chinese press, Mohieldin was reported to have said that Chinese investors are welcome in Egypt. With growing interest, Egypt sees the rise of Chinese investment, which is growing in various sectors, such as communication, technology, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, service as well as tourism, and currently financial service is the only sector still awaiting Chinese investment, Xinhua reported Mohieldin in as saying. As for security measures to protect the Chinese investment in Egypt, Mohieldin explained that Egypt and China signed an agreement in 1994 to encourage and protect mutual investment, which means to treat mutual investment in each other s country without discrimination. Egypt is a country of law and order, a country that observes obligation and adopts international standards. Egypt has an arbitration mechanism, and plans to set up a specialized economic court to solve the potential disputes between companies, if there are any, he added. Egypt, the first Arab and African country to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1956, has a long history of friendly ties with China, which serves as an advantage in promoting bilateral economic and trade cooperation and investment, noted Mohieldin. The Chinese press reports pointed out that Egypt has good investment opportunities for China, whose investment in Egypt reached $300 million in 2006, according to the Mohieldin. The minister also noted that China played an important role in the construction of Egypt s northwest Suez special economic zone.
