Egypt and China's Guangdong province Wednesday signed 22 contracts on trade and economic cooperation with a total value of US$400 million in a business conference.

With the contracts, China and Egypt are expected to cooperate in tourism, agricultural and power projects, and the establishment of factories of cars, spare parts, home appliances and electronics in Egypt.

The conference, with the title "Economic and Trade cooperation between Guangdong province and Egypt," was attended by Huang Huahua, governor of Guangdong province, Osama Saleh, chairman of Egyptian general authority for investment and some 1,000 businessmen from both sides.

Huang Huahua, during his speech, said the total import and export volume between Guangdong and Egypt has increased by five times in the past six years and reached 123 million dollars in 2009, accounting for one fifth of the total foreign trade volume between China and Egypt.

Osama Saleh, reading out the speech of Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohammed Rashid, said the relationship between Egypt and China goes back to more than 50 years ago as Egypt was the first Arab and African country to recognize China in 1956.

"Some 1,079 Chinese companies are now operating in Egypt, raising the Chinese investments to 323.9 million dollars from 1970 till 2010," said Saleh.