Egypt and China signed on Thursday a debt swapping memorandum of understanding (MoU) for development projects.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly is on an official visit to Beijing where he met with China's President Xi Jinping.
During the meeting, Xi conveyed China's strong interest in partnering with Egypt across various domains, including infrastructure, energy, aviation, tourism, renewable energy, healthcare, and more.
He warmly welcomed Egyptian products into Chinese markets, highlighting the significance of Egypt being the first Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with China.
Madbouly indicated the agreement on new expansions in the TEDA region to advance technology sectors, such as electric cars and green hydrogen production.
The PM expressed his aspiration for the participation of the New Development Bank of the BRICS group in financing his country's projects consistent with the Belt and Road initiative, especially in the field of new and renewable energy in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.
The Egyptian official thanked China for supporting Egypt's accession to the BRICS cooperation mechanism and expressed his readiness to work closely with China in multilateral cooperation to make the international landscape more balanced and just.
The BRICS group, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is seeking to enhance economic cooperation between member states and trade exchange in local currencies.
The Egyptian cabinet said in a statement that Minister of International Cooperation Rania al-Mashat signed the agreement with the head of the China International Development Cooperation Agency on the sidelines of the third session of the Belt and Road Forum.
The statement added that the memorandum reflects the strength of the bilateral relations between the two countries, bound by historical ties of friendship that date back to ancient history.
It aims to boost cooperation between the two countries in debt swaps to implement projects to achieve sustainable development by using tranches of Chinese debt to implement projects agreed upon by both sides.
Egypt has been involved in debt swap programs for development with Italy since 2001 and Germany since 2011 to strengthen the state's efforts to achieve comprehensive growth.
Meanwhile, Egypt's gold miner Centamin announced Thursday the production of 321,931 ounces of gold at the Sukari mine in Egypt in the first nine months of 2023.
The UK-listed firm said in a statement that it achieved revenues of $200.4 million during the third quarter of the year from selling 103,807 ounces, with an average actual price of $1,927 per ounce, while capital spending amounted to $59.1 million.
Centamin explained that the cash cost of production amounts to $882 per ounce, while the production cost for continuing operations amounts to $1,226 per ounce sold in the third quarter.
