Chinese-Egyptian partnership creates jobs, skills, global supply-chain ties

Fresh out of university, Ahmed Soliman joined Jushi Egypt for Fiberglass Industry S.A.E. as a workshop technician in 2012, when the company was establishing its operations in the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone.

"For me and most young Egyptians at that time, fiberglass manufacturing was an entirely unfamiliar term," Soliman recalled.

Few local universities offered relevant courses, and almost no domestic factories could offer apprenticeships. It was through mentoring from his Chinese colleagues and a six-month training stint in China that Soliman mastered the production skills. He rose step-by-step through technical and supervisory posts and became one of the most senior Egyptian national executives at the enterprise.

According to Jushi Egypt, over 98 percent of its roughly 1,900 employees are local.

"During my years at Jushi, I grew from a fresh university graduate into an experienced manager, something I could hardly have expected," Soliman said. "We are almost like family here. Our Chinese colleagues did not just give us salaries; they shared real-world skills and gave ordinary local people genuine promotion channels."

Technical guidance from Chinese colleagues helped local stone-mining partners improve their processing capacity and product quality to match factory requirements and form mutually beneficial local supply-chain ties.

Dina Mahmoud Hassan, deputy manager of planning and logistics, is another beneficiary of this model. Starting as a quality-control inspector with limited industry experience, she worked her way up through on-the-job training.

"This factory has opened doors of opportunity for young Egyptian women like me," Hassan said. "I have built my career here, and also built my own family life in Suez."

Waleid Gamal El-Dein, chairman of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, highlighted the project's far-reaching ripple effects. "Jushi Egypt expands local investment, generates decent jobs, and pushes forward national manufacturing upgrading," he said. "Its goods serve domestic needs and global markets, bringing vital foreign-exchange earnings for Egypt."

Jushi Egypt says its four production lines now give the country a spot among the world's top-four fiberglass producers, with an annual capacity hitting 360,000 metric tons. The facility exports more than 95 percent of that output via Ain Sokhna port, feeding into wind-turbine blades that account for roughly one-third of the global market.

Far more than a single manufacturing plant, Jushi Egypt serves as a tangible showcase for what Sino-Egyptian industrial collaboration can deliver, said Cao Hui, executive director of Egypt-TEDA Special Economic Zone Development. "It turns local mineral resources, Chinese technology, and well-trained Egyptian talent into globally competitive goods, while nurturing a new generation of local industrial professionals."