Egypt's government headed by prime minister and acting minister of housing, Mostafa Madbouly, has been considering a required preparation for President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's visit to China this September, as well as forthcoming economic and trade cooperation. Al-Sisi is scheduled to meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, as he will be attending the Forum for China Africa Cooperation. Madbouly on Monday met with ministers of investment, petroleum, transport, agriculture, industry and trade, and foreign minister's deputy for Asian affairs, as well as other top officials, according to a cabinet statement. The meeting tackled the preparation for Al-Sisi upcoming visit to China, which aim at bolstering bilateral cooperation, as well as addressing the forthcoming agreements in the fields of electricity, transportation, housing, and education. Madbouly emphasized the government's readiness to enhance Egyptian and Chinese cooperation on economic, investment, trade, and industrial levels, as well as make a greater use of the comprehensive and strategic partnership between the two countries. According to the cabinet's statement, ministers and officials also discussed the expected agreements during Al-Sisi's visit, which included the Chinese-funded electric train that will run to the New Administrative Capital, establishing coal-fired power plant in Hamarwein in Egypt and improving the education sector. Last month, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry took part in the eighth ministerial meeting of the Arab-Chinese Cooperation Forum in Beijing, China. He asserted during his speech that Egypt and all Arab nations are very attentive in cooperating with China in constructing the ambitious development campaign, the Belt and Road Initiative. The Chinese direct investments in Egypt are just under $7bn according to Han Bing, an economic counsellor at the Chinese embassy in Egypt statements to Daily News Egypt on 4 June. Bing added that Chinese financial institutions injected $5bn into the Egyptian financial market, during the past two years. Furthermore, the embassy's latest statistics suggested that bilateral trade exchange with Egypt witnessed an increase of 26%, during the first quarter of 2018 compared to the same period last year, reaching $2.8bn.
