The Chairperson of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), Walid Gamal El-Din, continued his second promotional tour in China by visiting the provinces of Suzhou and Hefei, after a successful visit to Hangzhou province in Shanghai. He met with several Chinese companies that specialize in the electric car, fibre, and logistics industries, and discussed the prospects of cooperation and investment in the SCZONE. In Suzhou, he toured the factories of Hengtong Group, one of the world's leading fibre optic cable manufacturers. The group already has a project to produce fibre cables in the Sokhna Integrated Zone of the SCZONE and plans to expand its production capacity and product range. The Chairperson of the SCZONE and the officials of Hengtong Group agreed to sign a new agreement on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Summit in Beijing, which will officially open tomorrow. In Hefei, he visited the factories of NIO, a luxury electric car company that produces 600,000 cars annually and aims to increase its production to one million cars next year. NIO has a strong presence in European and Chinese markets and has many innovations in software design, electronic chips, and charging stations. The Chairperson of the SCZONE and the senior management of NIO discussed the possibilities of cooperation in the field of electric car manufacturing and its related industries, in line with the strategy to localize the automobile industry in Egypt launched by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly last year from the East Port Said Economic Zone. The SCZONE aims to attract electric car companies to invest in the integrated East Port Said region, which is a strategic location for connecting European, Asian, and African markets. Gamal El-Din met with officials from Zheshang Development Group Co Ltd (ZSD), a leading Chinese company in logistics and supply chain integration for industrial customers, especially in the fields of mineral industries and renewable energy. ZSD is one of the 100 largest government companies in China and ranked 69th in the Fortune China list of the top 500 companies. The company expressed its interest in investing in the Egyptian market and joining the economic zone. ZSD aims to provide digital collaborative integration of storage, transportation, and processing services for raw materials and final products for various industries. It has advanced systems that offer comprehensive connectivity to production, marketing, inventory management, logistics services, and other integrated supply chain management and one-stop services for customers in the industrial chain. It plays a pivotal role in serving different kinds of industrial activities. The SCZONE Chairperson said that this meeting was a continuation of the successes achieved by the zone during the first promotional tour to China, where it signed contracts for new Chinese projects in the economic zone and letters of intent for future projects. He stressed that this meeting was a prelude to a new chapter of fruitful cooperation between the SCZONE and the financial and business community in China, in light of the close relations between the two countries. He also pointed out the diversity of the companies operating in different industrial sectors that the Authority aims to attract to its affiliated industrial zones, especially with the great development that the SCZONE has accomplished. The promotional tour by the SCZONE Chairperson coincides with the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which will be celebrated in Beijing with the participation of world leaders.
