by Muhammad Yamany, Zhang Lin

    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Sharing close relations with Egypt, China acts as a key partner in boosting the Egyptian economy, an Egyptian economic official said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

    China ranked the first in terms of investments in Egypt last year, said Osama Saleh, chairman of General Authority for Investments and Free Zones of Egypt, on the sidelines of the third Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs held here Saturday.

    Egypt has partnership with 953 Chinese companies, Saleh said, adding that he expected the number to be doubled soon due to the expanding of Chinese investments in North West Suez Industrial Free Zone and more partnerships in infrastructure and energy fields.

    He believed that as more Egyptian officials will go to China to promote the advantages of investing in Egypt, Chinese investments will be greatly boosted in the coming years.

    The North West Suez Industrial Free Zone, with China as the main developer, will be a major attraction for Chinese investments in the next phase, said Saleh.

    The free zone is aimed to attract 1.5 billion U.S. dollars of investments to build some 180 plants with 40,000 workers in various industries such as transportation, electric equipment, textiles and petroleum equipment.

    It is adjacent to the Sokhna Port, about 45 km southeast of Suez City, near the southern entrance of the Suez Canal.

    The free zone was a successful model for Egyptian-Chinese cooperation, Saleh said.

    He said that in the past five years, the Egyptian government has developed packages of regulations and laws to encourage investment in Egypt, adding that Egypt has tried its best to provide security and protection for foreign investments in general and Chinese investors in particular.

    Egypt welcomes Chinese expertise, especially in the fields of infrastructure, energy, electronics and information technology, Saleh added.

    In regard to the third Conference of Chinese and African Entrepreneurs, he said many meetings were held between businessmen of Africa and China to review a number of giant projects and to sign new cooperation agreements, which provide a good platform to enhance the Sino-African cooperation.

    On Saturday, ministers of trade, industry and commerce from China and African countries attended the conference, together with more than 800 businessmen from both sides.