China, Egypt plan future cooperation

China could play a role in several major developmental projects in Egypt, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi's office has said, after El-Sisi met on Saturday with the Chinese culture minister, who was sent to Cairo as a special envoy on behalf of President Xi Jinping.

The projects include the Suez Canal zone project, which aims to create an industrial and logistic hub in the vicinity of the canal; and the one-million feddan land reclamation project, according to a statement by presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef quoted by Al-Ahram daily.

El-Sisi is expected to fly to China next month to attend the victory celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

For his part, Chinese Minister of Culture Luo Shugang praised the new Suez Canal, an extension to the critical waterway which was inaugurated at a lavish ceremony last week, and said that the project would positively impact shipping traffic both for China and globally.