Egyptian President Attends Founding Ceremony of China-Egypt Business Council
BEIJING, January 24 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian President Muhammed Hosni Mubarak attended the founding ceremony of a China-Egypt business council in Beijing Thursday.Mubarak began his state visit to China Wednesday at the invitation of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
Yu Xiaosong, president of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), said economic and trade relations between China and Egypt have been developing rapidly in recent years.
Although some Chinese businesses have begun investing in Egypt, Yu said, there are still huge economic and trade potentials to be tapped.
Yu said both governments attach great importance to bilateral economic cooperation, and give full support to the newly- established business council.
The council will be a bridge linking enterprises from the two countries, Yu said.
The Egyptian Minister of Foreign Trade Youssef Boutros Ghali called on Chinese and Egyptian entrepreneurs to promote trade and investment in the fields of machinery, transportation, tourism, and mining as well as energy.
He expressed appreciation for CCPIT's efforts in expanding Egypt-China economic and trade cooperation.
Figures from the Chinese customs show that in the first eleven months of 2001, the China-Egypt trade volume reached 890 million U. S. dollars, up 5.6 percent on the same period of 2000.
China mainly exports electronics and machinery, textile and clothing, chemical products, light industry products as well as food to Egypt and imports crude oil from Egypt.
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