CAIRO, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Minister of Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid said his country was keen on "benefiting from China's great and important experience" in developing Egypt's economy and developing stronger trade and economic ties with China in the coming years.

    In an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Monday in the Egyptian capital, Rachid revealed his recent visit to China and its results, his ambitious plan to develop economic relations between Egypt and China, and the achievements of Egypt's economic reforms since July 2004.

    Rachid, a businessman-turned promising politician in Egypt, told Xinhua that Egyptian-Sino relations are old and distinguished based on mutual respect and agreement in views of many international and regional issues.

    Egypt and China "are celebrating the 50th year of establishing the diplomatic relations and the relations between the two countries are model of diplomatic relations to other countries," said Rachid.

    "My visit to China was to start a new stage and level of economic relations with China," Rachid told Xinhua in his office in downtown Cairo.

    Rachid, who became one of the first international business executives to take an Egyptian cabinet post in July 2004, headed an Egyptian delegation to visit China in early September and met with senior Chinese economic officials and businessmen in major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Qingdao.

    In Rachid's minds, Beijing represented China's political center, Shanghai was for economic and commercial center while Qingdao, which gestated many promising Chinese companies including Haier Groups, one of the world's leading home-appliance makers, was for technological center.

    "It was a successful visit and I learnt a lot from the way of development in China which achieved great success in the past few years," he said.

    "The Chinese success is a pioneering one and shows not only the understanding of the Chinese government and people to what change is happening around them but also your ability to cope with the world economy," said Rachid.

    Egypt must benefit from China's great and important experience and transfer the successful Chinese experience to the Egyptian society, he said.

    "The aim of the visit was to create special trading relations with China in the coming phase," he said, adding, the relations should be integrated not only in importing and exporting but also in investment and joint cooperation in many fields.

    Rachid said that trade between Egypt and China was growing by 30 to 40 percent every year and China will be Egypt's first trading partner without any special procedures from his ministry if it continues for eight or nine years.

    Yet he cautioned that it would depend upon China's ability to develop its products and Egypt's ability to deal with the Chinese goods in the coming years.

    Trade between Egypt and China reached nearly 2.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, up 36 percent over the previous year. China enjoyed a dominating surplus of some 1.7 billion dollars.

    Rachid said he wanted to boost Egypt's export to China incoming years with joint projects in the fields of cotton, marble, building materials and petrochemicals.

    More than trade, Rachid said he also desired to attract Chinese investment. "I have invited Chinese companies to carry out investments in Egypt since the cost of holding businesses in Egypt is low given manpower, energy and buildings," he said.

    Egypt witnessed a continuing increase in foreign investment thanks to the Egyptian government's efforts to improving investment climate during the past two years, said Rachid, adding this year's foreign direct investment into Egypt was expected to reach eight billion dollars, nearly three times more than that two years ago.

    But, "we are still far from perfection in this field, there are investment-related problems and the government is trying to remove obstacles that may face any investment," he asserted.

    Commenting on Egypt's economic reform during the past two years, the minister said Egypt has implemented a set of economic reforms such as reducing customs, restructuring banking system and amending some legal articles.

    These reforms produced great outcome on the economy with economic growth rate hitting 6.9 percent and industrial growth reaching some six percent in the fiscal year of 2005-2006, which ended on June 30, he noted.

    Rachid, born in 1955 in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria and once president of Unilever North Africa, Middle East and Turkey, was seen by many as minister of Egypt's modernization since he was playing a key role behind Egypt's economic reform since July 2004.

    Rachid dismissed some Americans' concern over the continuing development of Egyptian-Sino relations.

    "I don't think there would be any concern about the progress of Egyptian-Sino relations because they are built not only on historic, friendly and cooperation bases, but also on sound economic bases," he said.

    "There is clear understanding in the U.S., Europe, and all other countries on the role that China plays in the world economy," Rachid said.

    He also dismissed western media's accusations of Chinese investments into Africa, saying that there was no neo-colonization because the age of colonization was over and the relations between China and the African countries were sound and based on mutual benefit.

    Egypt would participate in the Chinese-African summit, slated for early November in Beijing, said Rachid, who will accompany Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for the Beijing summit.

    Egypt supports and encourages African-Sino relations based on common interests and mutual benefit, Rachid concluded. Enditem