Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji flew into Cairo from Turkish capital Istanbul Friday afternoon for a four-day official visit at the invitation of Egyptian President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak.
This is the most important visit by a head of the Chinese Government since President Jiang Zemin toured the Arab nation in 1996 and 1999.
The past years have seen frequent exchanges of visits between Chinese and Egyptian leaders, which have helped forge new forms of cooperation in various fields, a Foreign Ministry official told China Daily.
Egyptian President Mubarak has made eight visits to China and during his tour of Beijing in April 1999, the two nations agreed to establish a strategic cooperative relationship oriented to the 21st century.
Mubarak's visit to China earlier this year has further raised the existing close ties to "a new and higher level", the official said.
The Chinese premier's current visit will focus on bilateral trade and the crisis in the Middle East.
Zhu is scheduled to meet and hold formal talks with President Mubarak and Prime Minister Obeid respectively this morning.
"I am looking forward to meeting the Egyptian leaders for a full exchange of views on the major international and regional issues of common concern," said Premier Zhu in a written statement released on his arrival.
"The long-term friendly relationship between China and Egypt has stood the test of constant changes in the global situation and achieved fruitful results," Zhu said.
It is of particular importance that the two nations increase exchanges and cooperation in the context of a modern world which is characterized by tremendous change, he stressed.
He expressed his hope in the statement that his Egypt tour will further cement close ties between the two nations.
This will be exemplified when the two governments sign four agreements following Zhu's formal talks with Prime Minister Obeid this morning.
One will feature a grant of 35 million yuan (US$4.375 million) by China to Egypt. The other three accords cover cooperation in school education and health quarantine of animals and plants.
Egypt was the first Arabian and African nation to recognize the People's Republic of China when the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1956.
Now it has become China's second-largest trading partner on the African Continent, behind South Africa.
Statistics reveal Sino-Egyptian trade rose to US$953.2 million last year, an increase of 5.1 percent on the previous year.
The first two months of this year saw a dramatic growth in bilateral trade which rose by 41.5 percent to US$138.1 million.
"Trade and cooperative economic ties between China and Egypt could become a model of cooperation among developing countries," said a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), who is travelling with the Chinese premier.
Egypt is the second leg of Zhu's three-nation tour. In Istanbul -- "the commercial capital" of Turkey -- the Chinese premier Friday delivered a speech at a luncheon attended by about 500 local business leaders and entrepreneurs.
Briefing the robust momentum of China's economic development in recent years, Zhu assured his hosts there would be no problems in maintaining an annual GDP growth of 7 percent in the coming years.
Despite the slowdown in the world economy, China has kept an average GDP growth of 7.8 percent annually over the past five years, Zhu said.
He noted that in the first quarter of this year, China' GDP increased by 7.6 percent and national foreign exchange reserves reached US$227.6 billion by the end of March.
The total volume of imports and exports was up 7.7 percent compared with the same period last year while foreign direct investment in China exceeded US$10.1 billion -- a rise of 27.5 percent.
All this indicated that China has the ability to overcome any difficulties and challenges in its economic development, Zhu said.
Now that China has become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), it will strictly carry out its WTO commitments and open wider to the outside world, he said.
Turning to Sino-Turkish economic and trade ties, the Chinese premier described cooperation prospects as "broad and bright", saying many areas have great potential.
The total volume of bilateral trade reached a record US$1.2 billion in 2000 but Turkey's deficit with China stood at US$950 million.
Due to China's efforts to improve the trade balance, this figure dropped to US$443 million last year, Zhu said.
The Chinese premier raised several proposals to bring about closer economic cooperation.
They include increasing mutual exports of new products in addition to traditional commodities, expanding cooperation with a focus on agricultural technology and tourism and encouraging mutual investment.
(China Daily April 20, 2002)
