The China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone on the Red Sea coast has attracted more than 200 enterprises, over $4.7 billion in investment, and directly created more than 10,000 jobs — ’building an industrial new city in the desert’.
On August 25, a China-Egypt media joint reporting team on high-quality Belt and Road cooperation visited the zone.
In this modern industrial park, factories and warehouses line up neatly, and the living quarter is fully equipped. ’Before the zone was built, there was nothing here but sand,’ said Amina, a reporter with Egypt’s Sada El-Balad. ’It has completely changed.’
From desert to industrial cluster, the zone’s growth is a vivid snapshot of deepening China-Egypt capacity cooperation. Construction started in 2008; in January 2016, President Xi Jinping and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi jointly unveiled Phase II. By the end of June 2026, the zone had attracted 200+ enterprises with cumulative investment exceeding $4.7 billion, cumulative sales over $7.3 billion, and more than 10,000 direct jobs, said Cao Hui, executive director of Egypt TEDA Special Economic Zone Development Company.
In the plant of Jushi Egypt Glass Fibre, workers skillfully operate winding machines as glass fiber is drawn and wound into package yarns. Since settling in the zone in 2012, Jushi Egypt has built Egypt’s glass fiber industry from nothing. It is now Africa’s largest glass fiber production base, making Egypt the world’s fourth-largest producer.
’Egypt never had such an industry before; now we not only have it but lead Africa,’ said Mohamed Bahaa, dean of the School of Commerce at Suez Canal University, recording the production process on his phone. In his view the project fills a gap in Egypt’s glass fiber industry and promotes Egypt-China trade.
In the quilting workshop of Egypt Panocean Textile Printing & Dyeing, Egyptian workers carefully operate equipment and compare products batch by batch with standard first samples. ’Our quilts are very popular in the North African market, with orders flowing in,’ said general manager An Zhenshuang.
MEA reporter Shorat said Egypt’s textile industry has rich raw materials and long-standing aesthetic heritage, while Chinese companies brought advanced equipment and processes, modern management and complete logistics chains — ’a mutually beneficial, win-win model’.
Egyptian blogger Amal Elhomosany said the visit gave her a direct view of Egypt-China cooperation: ’I want to share through my lens the story of building an industrial new city in the desert.’
