Egypt signs green sector agreements at China-Africa forum

Chinese investments galore: The three-day Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which wrapped on Friday in Beijing, saw the government sign a raftof contracts and MoUs with Chinese companies totaling over USD 1.1 bn. The agreements include a host of new industrial facilities in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) and investments in the renewables sector including PV glass, EVs, desalination and R&D centers for green tech.

MANUFACTURING-

A handful of newly announced Chinese factory projects are in the works: Chinese companies have inkedland usufruct agreements with the China-Egypt TEDA trade zone in Ain Sokhna to set up factories there:

#1- A USD 500 mn green chemicals facility: Chemicals manufacturer Befar Group will set up a USD 500 mn chlor-alkali production facility. Set to be the first green chemical facility in the country and globally, the facility in its first phase will harness wind and solar energy, electricity, and natural gas to generate steam as its energy source, according to SCZone head Walid Gamal El Din.

#2- A USD 300 mn glass production factory, including for PV: Glass manufacturer China Glass Holding will set up a USD 300 mn glass factory, including 230k tons of PV glass annually. The project will target the local market as well as exports to North Africa, the Middle East and Europe, with an export capacity of up to 240k tons annually, and projected export revenues of up to USD 120 mn annually.

#3- A USD 100 mn solar panel factory: Elite Solar will establish a USD100 mn factory to annually produce N-type solar cells with a collective capacity of 2 GW. The project aims to create 600 jobs whilst bridging the gap in the nascent photovoltaic energy industry and attracting related industrial clusters.

Egypt also urged GAC Motor, Henan Investment to invest in Egypt’s auto industry, including EVs: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly offered togive automobile manufacturer GAC Motor special incentives and a golden license to expand production to Egypt including the production of EVs. He also discussed potential investments with Henan Investment Group — the investment arm of China’s Henan province — particularly in renewable energy and EV industries.

GREEN COMMUNICATIONS-

#1- Green transformation: Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and China inked MoUs with Chinese tech companies to boost cooperation in communications and information technology, while establishing R&D centers for green transformation.

#2- FiberHome to set up shop in Egypt: Wuhan FiberHome International Technologies inked an MoU to set up an R&D center for green transformation technologies and optical networks. This comes as part of a larger agreement to set up a fiber optic cables factory that will produce 1 mn core kilometers of fiber, 500k communication terminal devices, and 3k base station antennas annually.

#3- Tsinghua Unigroup to set up USD 300 mn technology investment fund: State-owned technology and semiconductor manufacturer Tsinghua Unigroupinkedan MoU to set up a technology investment fund with an initial capital of around USD 300 mn, of which the company and its subsidiaries will contribute 60-70%. The agreement will also see the company setting up a data center, rolling out cloud services, and studying the establishment of an R&D center for electronic chip design.