China & Africa | China's Investments in Egypt | The New Silk Road | China's Gateway to Africa

[Music] economists are calling this the egyptian dream [Music] i'm anthony morris and i'm in the ancient city of cairo to understand the ambitious plans being undertaken by china and egypt to revolutionize this region with the building of power plants highways and ports all across the land and vital sea routes like the suez canal that connect european waters with the arabian ocean egypt is powering its economy by revolutionizing its manufacturing base and a new administrative capital we examine the ambitious plans being undertaken by president sisi and how china plans to fund them in this silk road finale beijing is developing a massive economic plan across countries and continents with the one belt one road initiative involving more than 65 countries china is creating a new world order through trade and commerce and the middle east and north africa are crucial markets for chinese enterprises to establish their economic hegemony considered to be a cradle of ancient civilization egypt is our final destination for this year's silk road mired in history cairo has been the capital for the last 1 000 years welcoming traders and tourists alike with its entrepreneurial flair and hospitality and the chinese are taking up the invitation descending on the capital with their traditional trade and commerce [Music] it's aiming to use egypt as an economic nerve center a vital cog that sits in the middle of europe africa and the middle east egypt is the second country on china's new maritime silk route and the one belt one road initiative after pakistan the plan is to increase china's maritime traffic to the mediterranean through the suez canal by developing several port cities for manufacturing and trade due to increased trade president sisi is trying to make egypt a critical trading partner with beijing in the middle east and the remaining countries on the one belt one road a country of over 95 million egypt is the most populous country in north africa and is being dubbed as china's gateway to africa fayez farahat an expert in economics and geopolitics is excited to see a new superpower rising in the region what role will egypt play in china's one belt one road as it relates to china's access to africa african markets yes because of geographical location of asia china can consider egypt as the gate for africa not only the gate for africa but the gate for the arab world the arab region europe also because uh egypt is near to the south of europe according to the map of uh one belt one road i think egypt is located a part of the maritime axis of this initiative egypt's political turbulence has traditionally been a major handicap for its economic development the country has faced several political upheavals from within leading to mass instability in a stagnant economy the most prominent uprising came at tehrir square in 2011 that led to the ousting of president hosni mubarak who had ruled the country for 43 years but the newly elected president mohamed morsi of the muslim brotherhood didn't last long the egyptian army mounted a coup and the court sent morsi behind bars for 25 years that brought egyptian military chief abdul fattah el-sisi to power who today is the most powerful person in the country and the president of egypt since 2014. china is banking on him for economic and political stability in the region the military intervention in the region in 90s and also in 2003 in iraq and libya the experience of the military intervention of the western powers in general in the middle east they didn't lead to stability in the middle east if china is aiming to build a multiballer system to the middle east is important because that chef have been made here this is why the middle east is important for china it will make the shaft from the unipolar system to the multiball system [Music] president sisi met chinese premier xi jinping in 2016 signing deals worth 17 billion u.s dollars for egypt in special economic zones and joint productions with china the relationship between the two is steeped in history with chinese traders for centuries bringing goods through egypt and the middle east before traveling onwards to europe stopovers like the kanel kalili bazaar were critical for layovers and conducting business it's one of the world's oldest covered markets having been founded in 1382 due to the spice route trade between europe and china named after the great khans who conquered egypt in the 14th century the bazaar became a major center for foreign trade [Music] so how old is the kanela uh how is the egyptian economy doing [Music] foreign ahmad decided to help us get a closer feel of the bizarre by dressing me up as one of the great khan traders of the 14th century [Music] all right thanks guys thanks guys all right well as the saying goes when in rome do as the romans do so having a little light-hearted fun getting dressed up as a con maybe what they would have worn when they walked through this great bazaar hundreds of years ago ornate gates and upper stories whose external facades lined with arabic scriptures where merchants rooms were located are preserved in time today it is one frantic dizzying retail extravaganza where you can buy pretty much anything from jeans and gold to hookahs and magic oils traditional workshops continue to operate in the surrounding area as night falls the area is swarmed with tourists out to buy trinkets carpets and extravagant perfumes while kadur has been walking through these intricate bazaars for years he understands that egypt has the potential to be a global economic player for china in the region can you give a historical perspective of the ancient silk route and how it passed through egypt the essence is very ancient road for trade between china and europe more than 3 thousand years before crest now this is another new silk road which we hold it's built on for within two years it will be reached 600 billion years dollar the trade between china and africa reaches 400 billion us dollars bilateral relations between egypt and china have entered its 60th year and trade between the two has now swelled into the billions we visit the most important chinese man in cairo today to understand the extent of china's footprint in egypt han bing is the commercial and economic attache at the chinese embassy here in cairo he is coordinating this massive egyptian makeover with the decision makers in beijing as chinese investments are springing up across the landscape can you outline some of the major chinese investments or companies that are here in egypt when we collect the information from the companies operating here from china with chinese investment we come to the figure near 7 billion it's general authority for the investment free zone of egypt they have about 1300 companies registered in the in the cafe but first we need to build infrastructure like the the tethers only einsuchna for the expansion area also they are now constructing the infrastructure and expect to attract i think about 10 billion the us dollar we have many challenges here first we need to know each other better one buyout one road initiative we should see is the idea is the idea presented to the world in this concept we are focusing on the five areas so first one is the policy exchange the second one is infrastructure connectivity and third is for the trade and investment facilitation fourth is a financial corporation and the last one is exchange between the people so we are focusing on these five areas agreements with egypt in the fields of manufacturing and the development of ports and energy sources have been inked and are fast becoming a reality but the thousand-year-old city of cairo where all these agreements were signed is struggling with one of the fastest growing populations in the region the old city of cairo has turned into a congested mess it takes hours to go from one point to another making it highly unattractive for foreign businesses to set a base here in the capital it's congested and chaotic with more than 10 million inhabitants cairo's infrastructure is not able to meet the needs of its people so they're moving it right here the new capital planned to be the size of singapore is due to have an airport larger than london's heathrow a building taller than paris's eiffel tower and 10 000 kilometers of roads and avenues china fortune land development signed agreements with egyptian authorities to develop parts of the new capital it is signed a deal to develop and manage 5700 hectares of egypt's new administrative capital at a cost of 20 billion us dollars and just a road trip from old cairo towards the new capital shows hundreds of billboards advertising the luxurious new lifestyle that awaits the people of egypt the city is planned to consist of 21 residential districts from houses ranging from 400 000 to 1 million u.s dollars it's president sisi's promise of a more luxurious lifestyle for those who can afford it it is projected to have a population of five million people in the next five years and solve the chronic housing problems of old cairo ahmad sabur is one of the largest developers in cairo overseeing this massive initiative what role is china playing in egypt's housing market lots to start with uh china state which is one of the it's the biggest largest company in the world as far as i understand or as far as i'm sure they are it's a government-owned company they just signed the contract to develop the central business district in the new capital it's a three billion dollar project and it was signed on the day of the launch i said that it was a month and a half ago where we attended this launch three billion dollar project which is all the office buildings all the the business district of the capital so this is not a housing project it is planned that the new capital will transfer the parliament presidential palaces government ministries and foreign embassies all to this place it's estimated to be completed between 2020 and 2022 and may end up costing nearly 45 billion us dollars according to some estimates this massive project however hasn't come without its fair share of problems complications arose when chinese contractors backed out due to overpriced construction rates critics further argued the reason for a new capital uprooting thousands of government employees to be taken to a barren desert area but the creation of jobs in the construction sector inside egypt finally led to a compromise between the two countries with the chinese companies that are investing in new cairo are they bringing in chinese laborers are they using local egyptians both it needs to be a win-win chinese companies great companies are coming here to invest in a very high potential country and we are very happy that they make money and make profits and make more money and make more profits but we have an unemployment problem so it needs to be a win-win this win-win situation has attracted powerful egyptian construction giants like mountain view they're developing projects like the hyde park the largest landscape park in new cairo the company is headed by ayman ismail a private contractor who swiftly invested in president sisi's dream of a new capital at a time when some chinese financiers backed out iman who later went on to head the advisory board on the new administrative capital as its chairman is excited about the new city situated 40 kilometers outside of old cairo why is there a new need for a new capital in egypt it's not going to be a replacement to the new capital it's going to be an extension to the current capital and that's very legitimate cairo won last year and i say one in a in a kind of uh you know sarcastic way to a certain degree the fastest growing city in the world you know in terms of population we've just added half a million people in cairo last year but there's more to the egyptian chinese story than just the new capital with the launch of the new suez canal being dubbed as the egyptian dream will this canal be able to withstand the massive security and infrastructure challenges the chinese proposal poses chinese investments in egypt have poured into the country in the billions with more than 50 chinese private and publicly listed companies now operating in the country the one belt one road initiative has arrived in egypt but the jewel of the egyptian crown is the development of the new and advanced suez canal an economic zone spanning 460 square kilometers for more than 150 years the suez canal has been the lifeblood of the egyptian economy that has undergone political and military crisis opened in 1869 it was completed and largely owned by a british and french company egypt got back the ownership only in 1956 after former egyptian president jamal abdul nasar nationalized the suez canal and took back control it led to the suez canal crisis and the region was thrown into turmoil to win the suez canal back militarily the united kingdom france and israel attacked and invaded egypt the egyptian military struck back with full force a ceasefire was finally announced in 1957 after intense pressure from the united states and the united nations over the next 50 years the suez canal's transformation has been breathtaking as foreign invaders were replaced with foreign investors in august 2014 president sisi announced the expansion of the suez canal project with much fanfare to promote the economic lifeline of the country a new 72-kilometer canal was dug parallel to the existing canal in two years for two-way maritime and cargo traffic by 2016 the two-way suez canal was ready to serve as a major maritime trade route entirely funded by the egyptian people over 64 billion egyptian pounds were raised through investment certificates to fund its expansion today it's been dubbed as the egyptian dream promotional campaigns under president sisi are selling their biggest development project to the chinese to develop special economic zones around the canal suez canal economic zone is the promising area in november 2015 and on this land a hopeful voice came out israel from [Music] today and after only two years the promise has been fulfilled the suez canal zone seeks to benefit from its close proximity to major maritime and economic markets in the region with abundant land and human resources available it aims to provide investors with a market of 1.6 billion customers in the middle east and north africa under preferential trade agreements egypt is developing industrial zones along the canal to boost the sc zone as a world-class logistics and trade center more than one million jobs are expected to be created over the next 15 years with shipbuilding and repair made easy for international traders and i'm at the suez canal one of the most important geostrategic maritime trading routes and china is arriving in its customary style 11 of chinese maritime trade passes through the suez canal to cater for the north african markets beijing's trade with north africa aims to increase the waterway capacity of the suez canal to reach 97 ships a day that will potentially double egypt's canal revenues from 6 billion us dollars to nearly 13 billion u.s dollars annually and the role of this man is vital for the chinese who aim to utilize the expanded suez canal for two-way maritime traffic mohab mamish heads the suez canal authority and reports directly to president sisi himself and we've got an exclusive interview to find out more about egypt's dream project why was the new suez canal an important project for president sisi it was not for britain's easy it's also for egypt okay okay we made this subscribe not for one person but for all the egyptian people because we have some troubles in the system of the sales canal if you have any defective and ship you have to stop all the source canal because you are working in one leg only but now we have two tracks if something wrong in the track in one track you can change the navigation to the other track and we are limited with the new ships and the depths and the drafts of the ships and now we have many mega ships in the fleets in the world we have to be ready to trade with the new standard of the ships we have to make the canal deeper wider and faster singapore ports authority is also working in the east port saeed can you tell us a little bit more about that as well singapore they are very high experience we have a very good connection with them i started working with them and i convinced our president cece to come to visit san kapoor and i visited san gabriel with him because i have an very good relation with them they are very decent and they are very straight and they are very faithful [Music] [Applause] with the rise in china's trade to africa to more than 80 billion u.s dollars annually the suez canal is aiming to become an international trading hub not only for transit purposes to serve as a manufacturing base for chinese companies trading with africa special economic zones or secs are being developed under the one belt one road plan around the canal what is the strategic importance of the suez canal economic zone we would like to show our experience how to develop the economic zones how will chinese companies benefit from having the made in egypt stamp on their products of course they will have the better access access to the to the market around egypt or when the egypt has these trade agreements with these countries and also i think here we can have the lower cost of the production and also investment in the production can help egypt to industrialization the country to get stronger in the economy that we kind of develop economic cooperation more chinese companies are being promoted to set up shop in egypt due to cheaper costs of production and its close proximity to a large consumer market in north africa we should have the best skilled labor the position of egypt we can export to let's say to europe without any customs the same thing for the arab world to export the same thing for the commercial and we can export to africa without customs one of the most important port cities inside the suez canal economic zone is ayinsokna a port that connects the red sea and the mediterranean as part of the one belt one road initiative one of the leading chinese companies is ensuring that more investments flow here the tida group one of the oldest industrial developers in china have created this seven square kilometer industrial zone which now has 68 chinese companies due to cheetah's economic zone chinese fiberglass manufacturing giants have flown in to ayan soknaport in style jushi egypt arrived here two years ago and today has a total investment of 223 million u.s dollars making it the biggest private chinese investment in egypt jushi has had an immediate impact on the local economy it has hired more than 1 900 egyptian workers to boost the local employment in the region and is only a limited number of 50 chinese staff members by setting up a manufacturing base in the suez canal economic zone jushi is now exporting 95 percent of its goods from ayan sokna to europe and north africa as a result freight costs for jushi have greatly reduced in comparison to its earlier shipments that arrived via sea routes from their headquarters in the chinese city of cheshyang jushi's move to egypt has made it more competitive and efficient what role does tita play in jushi's operations here this error belongs to tida investment so when we come here the titan support us to make make this factory and this for us to finish our lessons and support us our guests travel all the things after this week running smooth [Music] the labor from egypt is cheaper than china it's first it's the most important thing but not the first the first for the miner you know egyptians have many many different miners to manufacture the fiberglass in order to attract more foreign investment as a manufacturing hub egypt is positioning itself as the export gateway to north africa and europe does having a made in egypt stamp uh on juicy products is that beneficial for the company yes for the fiberglass export from china to to europe it's uh have a very high tax but from here we send our production to the europe no tax big benefit for us to relocate here to egypt yes so it's the most important thing we come here you know the tax nearly the 36 percent jushi has also been able to cut down taxes by taking advantage of the tax breaks being provided by the egyptian government for foreign investors with increased profits juxie is already setting up a new manufacturing plan in egypt future not a very long distance next year we already purchased another land for new workshop next year we will finish all the workshops such as the package manufacturer workshop silica burner limestone milling workshop and the natural gas station yes tita is very important for us i can't say no tida no no julia with a rise in chinese firms egyptian firms aren't holding back and are signing joint manufacturing agreements to bring chinese products to egypt after the break we delve into egypt's automobile sector and meet the man who is making chinese cars famous in the country china's one belt one road initiative is sweeping across the middle east and north africa and egypt is making its presence felt hundreds of contracts worth billions of dollars have been signed with the chinese in energy manufacturing and special economic zones it's transforming the way egyptians work think and live and if there is one thing that the egyptians love it's their love for imported cars traditionally an importer of german and american cars it is now locally manufacturing joint productions of chinese cars they're cheap and easy to make in less than 10 years the egyptian automotive business has grown from just three plants to now manufacturing nearly 100 000 units of passenger cars per year and plants like this in cairo are churning out 100 cars a day to satisfy the needs of the egyptian people gabor autos is responsible for 96 of chinese cars being sold in cairo and its founder ralph gabor has been nicknamed the chinese ambassador in egypt in 2016 alone he sold more than 12 000 chinese brands gili and cherry 20 years the chinese have proven to be able to achieve in much shorter period of time and i believe that they are not far away in terms of quality today especially when you talk about companies which both i'm here stating the example of gili jd bought volvo a few years back and today we see clearly the impact of the acquisition their product quality and styling has improved tremendously if i would quantify the quality gap it's it would be no more than 10 which i see in the next very few years will be closed can you talk about the importance of the china-egypt collaboration in particular in the automobile industry yeah i think china was very smart and i i have seen the same trends in korea uh 25 years ago both korea and china chose testing markets so they chose some markets where they are they were testing their products korea didn't start exporting to the world they started exporting to some middle eastern countries and african countries and when they tested the product's performance in offshore markets they started then developing and and they developed their management skills to cope with the requirements of export markets then they started expanding to other markets this is exactly what china has done rising egypt china manufacturing has created a positive mood amongst most egyptians as lots of hard cash is flowing into the country as part of the one belt one road deals egypt will be receiving millions of dollars in loans to finance massive development projects it's increased egypt's foreign reserves in a country that was starved of hard cash after the political turmoil that hit the country in 2011. ahmed el saywidi the head of the egypt china business council the body responsible to facilitate chinese investments in the country is satisfied with the progress it was quite clear in the last 20 years that the trade with china is being more and more ever every year and the relation between the gulf countries and the egypt it have been also growing in the last 20 years a lot of china now having a lot of technology and a lot of know-how and now they're not only exporting now goods they're exporting every technology and factories so i believe with this road it will be better for the chinese to find the better markets and at the same time for egyptian and for the gulf region to find a better partner and more easy partner chinese loans and investments in development projects are being welcomed despite clarity on what the interest rates would be to the public despite the risk that egypt poses for potential investments omar el-shaneti an investment expert believes that the chinese know where and how much to invest definitely the chinese investments are very critical and strategic and to a very big extent they are different than the rest of the investments that we are getting for very specific reasons number one um i would say that china in general is uh is more prone to risk chinese institutions have been used to invest across africa and we as a firm have worked a lot in different countries in africa and wherever you go you see chinese companies and contractors and infrastructure companies so china as a nation and chinese companies are used to high risks so they view the country here as generally quite a good risk when you compare it to other places they are used to this is number one number two chinese do not come to just lend money to the government or to banks but they really come with projects as they say in economics the higher the risk the higher the return and han bing the chinese economic and commercial attache believes that egypt's risks are being viewed as china's opportunities by beijing but we are expecting situations stabilizing and the economy is recovering when we saw that the last quarter the egyptian economies has the 4.9 percent growth so this gives the good competence for the overall economic situation from the egyptian business people to chinese business people they have a different approach and we we need to find that the way that connect be accepted by by both sides so the culture the difference is is that quite big the both sides should accommodate or not besides all these challenges we believe that our cooperation will have very bright future and i think now the is the time for chinese companies to come to egypt for the investment after the break we visit the chinese cultural center to see how cultural barriers are being broken down and meet with an egyptian chinese couple who are introducing dragon boating to the nile china's one belt one road has arrived in egypt with billions of dollars of investments and projects the chinese dragon has landed in this african nation from joint productions in manufacturing to facilitating ports to propelling chinese products to the european markets they have all been inked it doesn't end there there's a cultural exchange also going on between the two countries the two thousand year old chinese sport of dragon boat racing has found a new waterway on egypt's nile river a dragon boat academy has been inaugurated at the royal muhammad ali club in giza and has garnered the interests of chinese and egyptian nationals in the area mary lai is solely responsible for this interesting development but it all began with a sweet egyptian chinese love story i came here to study arabic so first of all i love culture and i love language and this language become a key to for me open many doors so one of the key i found my husband nice okay and you've been married for how many years now no it's just only uh five years five years yes okay and i think this is one of the beautiful things um that we're seeing on you know the one belt one road or these kind of cross-cultural or intercultural uh marriages in china you find it too you find people from egypt who have married chinese women or living there speak perfect mandarin here you are someone from hong kong have married an egyptian and you speak fluent arabic yeah you later will see my husband nihab and he's the coach he's the first egyptian he go to hong kong and china to get training as a dragon boat coach what's the idea is uh because egyptians have a civilization and chinese auto civilization and we bring this civilization together the dragon ball and the river now mary's husband ihop has been working hard on spreading dragon boating after he mastered the sport in hong kong and guangzhou that han here your hand to hand the street okay you're here near the boat okay and then you sit this leg is up this leg it's back down like that okay and you your hand two straight so you push he is currently training several groups of players to prepare for the next festival in cairo where dragon boat teams from spain cyprus and others will take part the trainees mostly dragon boating for the first time are excited during the ride as they sit in two rows and learn how to harmoniously row their sticks together what are the future plans for the dragon boating federation i think we have at different stages we are in the beginning stage so we treat it as a community sport it's a culture it's a game a water game you know and then slowly we probably will be to establish federation but still too early because we just want as a community team building a culture game i think the culture we need to learn how to appreciate one another so one by one role to give this beside the economy but also in the culture side to let the egyptian understand our chinese culture what is the story about the dragon ball because we last time in may we do a dragon ball festival and then we make a story to tell them what is the story about dragon ball and they was really amazing because the story of dragon ball is a very nationalism you know so and they really appreciate and they understand and for in the future we want the egyptian to have the team the dragon ball team to go to china so they have more exchange more understand one another with this foundation i believe in the future no matter the economy and all the infrastructure will be helping because for the mutual understanding of one another civilization to understand the sport better ihob invited me to the biggest challenge of them all my team was being pitted against the mighty muhammad ali club after some light training off we went to the nile's greatest dragon boating competition so right now we just came out from where we uh got on the boats we've had a little bit of practice yeah uh what's gonna happen next are we gonna race these guys yes yes this is the muhammad ali club teams he's a very strong team and we prepare this team to be to go play outside asians we hope so in the future and we practice this team to make him stronger and already he's famous in deliverance too so just to let you know we're going up against an established team we've we've dubbed ourselves the nile dragons yes and we're going to take on the team let's see how we do yes yes that's we go let's go all right [Applause] [Music] so [Music] on this beautiful day we've enjoyed a friendly competition on these dragon boats here on the famous nile river and though the opposing team clearly won our coach here said in the end it was really a situation of win-win and i think that's so typically represents the spirit of the one belt one road initiative [Music] egypt's dragon boat academy was inaugurated by the chinese embassy here in cairo its chinese cultural center in the heart of cairo plays a vital role in merging cultural and linguistic barriers between the two nations this is the first chinese cultural center in the middle east and it has been running for the past 15 years and i've been invited to learn about one of china's most ancient martial arts forms right here [Music] tai chi short for tai chi chuan is an internal chinese martial art practice for both its defense training and its health benefits mark is a chinese tai chi teacher who came to cairo two years ago and has seen egyptians taking a keen interest in this art form how long have you been practicing tai chi when i was a young boy i followed my grandpa practical taiji maybe 10 years old the people here in egypt who take your classes are they enjoying the practice yes i sing them are you going to like this why do you practice tai chi oh yes because i think the tai chi is chinese traditional arts martial arts i think it's a culture and it's a chinese style uh kung fu and i think it is to keep your health good for your healthy and every day you can practice i think is a good spot first move your wrist open mark invited me to a class of tai chi along with his devoted egyptian followers it is believed that focusing the mind solely on the movements of the form helps to bring about a state of mental calm and clarity besides general health benefits stress management attributed to traditional chinese medicine is taught as well [Music] it's amazing to see this ancient martial art form being introduced on the one belt one road and being practiced by modern egyptians here in cairo along with tai chi daily mandarin classes have garnered immense interest from the people of cairo reducing cultural barriers between these two great civilizations [Music] the man responsible for this is the cultural attache of the chinese embassy in cairo mr yang yang he believes that the first step to bring chinese companies here is to develop greater cultural understanding foreign [Music] this greater cultural understanding has allowed a greater acceptance of chinese investments across the one belt one road my journey started in the chinese city of ningxia where i saw how china is on a charm offensive to promote its silk road vision to countries in the middle east [Music] in pakistan where an economic corridor is reducing terrorist violence with a renewed focus on job development in iran a crippled economy is now re-emerging on the world stage with the arrival of the iron silk road and here in egypt i've seen how international trade and cooperation can have a positive impact and bring political and social stability as ties between countries along the one belt one road strengthen many people in this ancient land believe that integrated economies can help create a better connected and stable world [Music] you

Channel: Moconomy

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Keywords: china egypt, china in egypt, egypt china, china egypt investment, china in africa, africa china, china in africa documentary, new silk road china, china africa colonization, china africa debt, africa china documentary, documentary, new silk road, best documentary, china & africa, silk road, the new silk road, china's economy, economy of china, egypt & china, economy documentary, chinas economy, world trade, china vs usa, belt and road, china usa, international trade

Id: ynVyJ-bLiZI

Length: 47min 27sec (2847 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021