10 years on, Suez flagship project becomes model for Global South partnership

For Nahla Emad, her 16-year work experience with the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone has completely changed her view of an industrial zone.

"For Egyptians like me, we had never heard before that an industrial zone could be a modern city," Emad said. The location of the zone near the Suez Canal was like a barren desert when she first saw it at the end of 2009, "but now you can find how many shops we have and how many commercial units we have here."

The 41-year-old CEO of Egypt-TEDA SEZone Development Company said she started to treat her career as "a big goal" 10 years ago.

Jan. 21 marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of the second phase of the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone. Ten years on, the cooperation zone has become a model for Global South partnership.

In 2024, we received over 300 business delegations. In 2025, this number increased to more than 500," said Wei Na, Emad's Chinese colleague who has worked in the cooperation zone for 18 years.

Over the past 10 years, the cooperation zone project progressed steadily. By the end of 2025, the zone hosted nearly 200 companies, with over 3.8 billion U.S. dollars in investment and around 10,000 jobs created, according to official data.