CAIRO: A delegation of Chinese investors will visit Alexandria today to discuss bilateral business opportunities between China and Alexandria with potential local business partners. According to the chairman of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, Mostafa El Naggar, the group will discuss the possibility of establishing joint trade fairs for both Chinese and Egyptian businesses in order to promote their goods and services in both countries. The Chinese delegation, which will include senior officials from the Chinese Foreign Trade Center, as well the center's secretary general, will also present a number of opportunities for Egyptian businesses to partner up with Chinese exporters. The visit may set off a trend of future exchange visits between China and Alexandria, according to the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, which hosted the visit. Chinese and Egyptian economic and investment agreements and their partnerships have been flourishing in the last few years. In 2004, the mutual trade exchange between the two countries reached $1.4 billion, with an annual increase of 47.6 percent. Chinese exports to Egypt reached $1.263 billion while its imports from Egypt reached $174 million, an increase of 21.4 percent in 2005, according to a report released by the Chinese General Customs Authority. Trade volume between Egypt and China also increased by 51 percent in 2004, compared to the same corresponding period in 2003. Egypt was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with China. The first trade agreement between the two governments was signed in 1955. In 1956, China opened the commercial counselor s office in Cairo and the two nations established formal diplomatic relations in the same year. In 1985 a new trade agreement was signed stipulating that bilateral trade would be settled with convertible foreign exchange from then on. This was replaced in 1995 by an economic and trade agreement which allowed bilateral trade to flourish according to the Economic and Commercial Counselor's office of the Chinese embassy in Egypt. China s exports to Egypt mainly consist of mechanical and electronic products, light industrial products, chemicals, metals and minerals and textiles. The main imports include crude oil, steel, cotton, linen, petrochemicals and aluminum materials, according to the Embassy. In recent years, bilateral cooperation has increased as the two countries have hatched a number of agreements and protocols, such as the Protocol of Cooperation in Agriculture, the Agreement on Cooperation of Animal Health and Quarantine, the Agreement on Cooperation of Vegetarian Quarantine, the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Petroleum and the Agreement of Cooperation in Tourism. In 2004, Egypt and China also signed four agreements regarding power equipment manufacture, communications, and software and distance education.
