Premier Li Keqiang met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on Sept 2 ahead of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

“Egypt is a regional influential country,” said the Premier, adding that China-Egypt relations are growing fast, and the high-level officials of the two countries also keep close exchanges.

President Xi Jinping and President Sisi also achieved wide consensus on deepening the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership on Sept 1, he said.

As China and Egypt can supplement each other with their own advantages, China is glad to encourage Chinese enterprises to invest in Egypt, develop cooperation in industrial capacity, process trade through the Suez Canal Industrial Park, expand to a wider market, all better to achieve win-win cooperation, the Premier said. He also expressed the hope that the Egyptian side could provide preferential tax policies on these aspects.

Sisi said China and Egypt have had long-time exchanges, and their relations have developed quickly since the two established diplomatic relations. The bilateral cooperation also has deepened.

The Egyptian side hoped to learn from China’s development experiences and welcomed Chinese companies to increase investment in Egypt, taking advantage of Egyptian location advantages and the Suez Canal Industrial Park to jointly explore the European, Middle Eastern and African markets, Sisi said.