I. History of TEDA Cooperation Zone

Established in 2008, the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone (hereinafter referred to as the "TEDA Cooperation Zone") is located in the Golden Triangle of the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, and adjacent to the Suez Canal. Under China’s major construction, it has become a national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone jointly funded by Tianjin TEDA Investment Holding Co., Ltd. and the China-Africa Development Fund. Located at the junction of the Belt and Road and "Suez Canal Corridor", the Cooperation Zone is Egypt’s only industrial park equipped with all-round supporting facilities that allows enterprises to enter and set up directly. It has attracted great attention from the Chinese and Egyptian governments. In December 2013, the contract for the expansion area (6 km²) of the Cooperation Zone was officially signed, and in January 2016, the Cooperation Zone became a new locality for Chinese enterprises’ business layout within the Belt and Road and “Suez Canal Corridor”.

The TEDA Cooperation Zone is a national-level overseas economic and trade cooperation zone approved by the Chinese government. Under the joint attention and with the strong support of the two countries, after 15 years of development and construction, it has gradually become an important platform for China-Egypt economic and trade cooperation.

On March 11, 2018, at a press conference of the 13th National People's Congress, the TEDA Cooperation Zone was introduced to Chinese and foreign journalists as a model for China-Africa overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. During the Belt and Road Summit Forum in April 2019, the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt and the Tianjin Municipal People’s Government signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Jointly Promoting the Accelerated Development of the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, marking the TEDA Cooperation Zone as one of the first batch of overseas park upgrading projects in China. With the support of the governments of China and Egypt, the TEDA Cooperation Zone, an international industrial new city on the shores of the Red Sea, has risen and gradually developed into a demonstration zone for China-Egypt economic and trade cooperation, shouldering the mission of being a bridgehead for China-Egypt economic and trade cooperation within the framework of the national Belt and Road construction.

Over the past 15 years, the TEDA team has summarized and improved the experience of overseas development and the operation practices of the TEDA Cooperation Zone, and has gradually formed a set of development and management models covering the whole process of overseas industrial parks, the TEDA overseas model, on the basis of the almost 40 years of development experience of China's TEDA Development Area and the business models of many development zones at home and abroad. The model takes the park as the starting point, implements the "Belt and Road" five-connection construction method, focuses on solving the various problems involved in the overseas development of industrial parks, and supports the sustainable development of overseas industrial parks along the Belt and Road and the training of overseas management personnel. At present, the TEDA's overseas model has been invited to practice in the overseas industrial parks of several countries along the Belt and Road and has achieved good industry recognition.

Location of the TEDA Cooepration Zone

(I)Background of the establishment of TEDA Cooperation Zone

Egypt is located at the border of Asia, Africa and Europe, and has friendly relations with China. With the continuous deepening of China's Belt and Road construction and Egypt's "Suez Canal Corridor" development plan, the establishment of an overseas economic and trade cooperation zone in Egypt is of far-reaching significance to strengthening and deepening economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. In 2008, China-Africa TEDA Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China-Africa TEDA") established by TEDA Investment Holding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "TEDA Holding") and the China-Africa Development Fund formally undertook the construction of the TEDA Cooperation Zone.

(II) Basic information of shareholders of China-Africa TEDA

1.TEDA Investment Holding Co., Ltd.

Founded in December 1984, TEDA Holding, as a municipal state-owned backbone enterprise, has bravely shouldered the burden of reform and fulfilled its social responsibilities for 38 years. It has played the role of a main force and pacesetter in the process of Tianjin’s reform, opening up and modernization, and has also undertaken important responsibilities and missions in promoting major national policies, such as the Belt and Road, the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the development and opening up of Binhai New Area. The main body of the company has a credit rating of AAA, and it has 55 second-level enterprises, including 6 listed companies. By the end of the third quarter of 2022, the total assets of TEDA Holding were valued at a total 459.6 billion yuan (about $63.03 billion). In 2022, the company ranked 267th among the top 500 Chinese enterprises, 101st among the top 500 Chinese service enterprises and 5th among the top 100 enterprises in Tianjin.

2.China-Africa Development Fund Limited

The China-Africa Development Fund is one of the eight policy measures for practical cooperation with Africa announced by the Chinese government at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in November 2006. The Fund, with an initial design size of $5 billion, is undertaken by China Development Bank and aims to guide and encourage Chinese enterprises to invest in Africa and increase Africa's own development capacity in a market-oriented manner. This is achieving by investing capital without increasing Africa's debt burden. In December 2015, it was announced that an additional $5 billion would be added to the Fund, bringing the total size of the Fund to $10 billion. The TEDA Cooperation Zone is the first overseas economic and trade cooperation zone project invested by the China-Africa Fund. 

TEDA SUEZ Planning Map

II. Development and Construction of TEDA Cooperation Zone

After more than 10 years of development, the TEDA Cooperation Zone has become a good platform for investment and cooperation between enterprises of the two countries, with remarkable economic and social benefits. By the end of July 2023, the TEDA Cooperation Zone had attracted a total of 145 enterprises to settle, with the actual investment exceeding $1.7 billion, accumulated sales exceeding $3.8 billion, tax payments exceeding $200, the direct employment of over 5,000 people, and driving employment by about 50,000 people. Jushi, XD, Dayun, Midea, Muyang, Wanhe and other leading Chinese enterprises in various industries, as well as international enterprises in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, Canada and other regions, are flourishing here.

(I)The Starting Area is in good operation and the new international industrial city has taken shape.

The Starting Area of the TEDA Cooperation Zone covers an area of 1.34 square kilometers and has been fully constructed with a total investment of $153 million, initially forming four leading industries of new building materials, petroleum equipment, high and low voltage equipment and machinery manufacturing. The park has complete supporting facilities and a China Small Business Incubation Park with 12 standard plants. It has a comprehensive supporting service center, investment service buildings, four-star hotels and staff apartments. It has built up entertainment facilities such as the TEDA Fun Valley and introduced the bus station of Go Bus into the cooperation zone to effectively meet the production and living needs of enterprises in the zone. The Starting Area Project has now formed a scale effect, and each industry is driven by leading enterprises. The leading enterprises, including Jushi, IDM, XD-EGEMAC and Famsun, are in steady development, with continuous economic growth, forming an industrial chain of "horizontal clusters and lateral chains".

(II) Investment promotion in the Expansion Area is strong and industrial clusters are booming.

The 6-square-kilometer Expansion Area Project of the TEDA Cooperation Zone has a total planned investment of $230 million and aims to attract about 150-180 enterprises. In the future, the project is expected to attract investment of up to $2 billion, realize sales of $8-10 billion and provide about 40,000 jobs.

In early 2016, China and Egypt unveiled the Expansion Area Project of the TEDA Cooperation Zone. With the strong support of the governments of China and Egypt, the infrastructure construction of the 2-square-kilometer Phase I of the Expansion Area has been completed. Various supporting facilities are in good operation and many enterprises, including Dayun Motorcycle and Leichu Textile, have been put into operation. The 2-square-kilometer Phase II of the Expansion Area completed the land transfer in April 2019, and started the construction of relevant supporting facilities. The high-quality investment environment has successfully attracted many well-known domestic enterprises, such as Midea and Zhejiang Cady, to sign up. By the end of July 2023, nearly 40 enterprises had settled in the Expansion Area of the Cooperation Zone, attracting more than $300 million in agreed investments. These projects are gradually attracting upstream and downstream supporting enterprises, promoting the continuous acceleration of industrial agglomeration in the Expansion Area, and greatly promoting the economic and trade cooperation between China and Egypt.

(III) The only Chinese enterprise that can carry out international logistics bonded trade, general trade and entrepot trade in Egypt

In 2019, the Egyptian government gave special approval to the TEDA to become the only Chinese enterprise that can carry out international logistics bonded trade, general trade and entrepot trade in Egypt. In December 2020, the TEDA obtained official approval from Egypt's Customs Authority, allowing its TEDA-Royal Bonded Warehouse to engage in the business of empty and heavy container storage and bonded goods storage, and designating the Suez Customs for business jurisdiction and customs supervision. This marks the official operation of the first Chinese-funded warehouse project in Egypt within the Expansion Area of the TEDA Cooperation Zone.

As an important part of the "Park Upgrading", the commerce business provides strong support for the TEDA Cooperation Zone to successfully carry out "Park Upgrading". Among them, the International Used Cars and Spare Parts Distribution Center is the service platform built by the cooperation area to promote China's second-hand Automobiles in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa, accelerating the mutual promotion of the domestic and international dual cycles of the automobile industry, realizing park upgrades and high-quality development, and further accelerating China-Egypt economic and trade cooperation. At present, the TEDA Cooperation Zone has successfully promoted the establishment of the MTS customs logistics system under the Egyptian Ministry of Finance and the Egyptian General Administration of Customs in the Cooperation Zone, providing customers with fast and effective one-stop service of customs logistics. Meanwhile, it has obtained the qualification for the import and storage of used cars, and plans to conduct business in second-hand cars on 100,000 square meters of land, and has established practical cooperation relations with many used-car manufacturers in China and Egypt. By the end of June 2023, nearly 750 vehicles had been imported, and many enterprises including Sinoway Group, EGK Used Vehicles, Korean Used Vehicles, EPIC New Energy, Egyptian Oriental Logistics, MESCO Logistics and TLS Logistics have settled in the Cooperation Zone. With the gathering and introduction of industry and commerce, the future land appreciation space is expected to be huge.

Starting Area of the TEDA Cooperation Zone

III. Significance of TEDA Cooperation Zone

In November 2013, the Chinese government proposed the Belt and Road initiative. In May 2015, the Chinese government proposed the Guidance on Promoting International Cooperation in Production Capacity and Equipment Manufacturing to establish a sound mechanism for international economic and trade cooperation. The Suez Canal connects the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, making Egypt a pivotal country along the Belt and Road, especially an important link in the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road". In 2015, the Egyptian government proposed the economic development strategy of "Revitalizing the Suez Canal Corridor" and vigorously promoted the industrialization process in Egypt. The Suez Canal Special Economic Zone is located at the beginning of the plan area and will be given priority to receive strong resource allocation from Egypt, while the TEDA Cooperation Zone, as the key project of the zone, is located at the golden juncture of the two national strategies and will be presented with a once-in-a-lifetime development opportunity. China and Egypt will always adhere to the concept of "peace and cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual learning and mutual benefit", and strive to achieve mutual industrial complementarity and pragmatic cooperation through policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people ties, and will deepen the achievements made in economic and trade cooperation between China and Egypt. The TEDA Cooperation Zone is of great strategic importance as a platform and grip for promoting China-Egypt economic and trade cooperation.

(I) Filling the gaps of related industries and enhancing the industrialization level of Egypt

Since the construction of the TEDA Cooperation Zone, TEDA people have always taken "high-level regional planning" and "high-standard park construction" as the standard, creating a good industrial, business, cultural and living environment for the park. The TEDA Cooperation Zone has continuously increased investment in the park's hardware infrastructure and service supporting facilities, not only driving an appreciation of the surrounding land, but also bringing advanced service concepts into Egypt, attracting a large number of world-class enterprises to settle in the park. The outstanding investment promotion results of the TEDA Cooperation Zone not only bring huge economic benefits to Egypt, but also improve the technical level of relevant industries in Egypt, as well as fill some market gaps in the Middle East and even Africa. For example, the Jushi Egypt Glass Fiber Company, as a high-tech modern enterprise, has not only made outstanding contributions to employment, taxation and other aspects, but has also given people a new understanding of "Made in China" and filled the gap in glass fiber production in North Africa, making Egypt the fifth largest glass fiber producer in the world.

(II) Solving employment in Egypt and paying attention to talents localization

Currently, the TEDA Cooperation Zone employs more than 5,000 local people and attaches great importance to the localization of talents. Among them, Egypt-TEDA has reserved a number of outstanding talents for the development, construction and management of the park for Egypt, and enterprises in the park have trained and exported a number of professional skilled workers and enterprise management personnel for Egypt. In terms of talent training, the TEDA Cooperation Zone regularly arranges various training events, and organizes for excellent employees and managers of Egypt to visit and study in China, so as to improve the management level of local employees and enhance the service concept through intuitive experience.

(III) Actively fulfilling social responsibilities and participating in many public charity activities

The TEDA Cooperation Zone creates economic benefits for Egypt, drives local technological development and industrial upgrading, and actively performs social responsibilities. The TEDA Cooperation Zone, together with the Chinese Embassy in Egypt and the local welfare institutions in Egypt, has held social charity activities on several occasions, distributed vegetarian food to the local people, and donated school supplies and other materials to Egyptian orphans; it has also cooperated with the MagdiYacoub Heart Disease Treatment Center, the most famous heart disease treatment institution in Egypt, to organize and mobilize people to raise awareness of and assistance to children with heart disease in Egypt; and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the TEDA Cooperation Zone, together with enterprises in the Zone, donated 80,000 masks to the Egyptian government for free. The Business Office of the Chinese Embassy in Egypt and the Egyptian Association for Common Development jointly issued a certificate of honor to the SEZone Development Company in recognition of its contribution to Egyptian society. Various charitable and public welfare activities have made the TEDA Cooperation Zone widely concerned and appreciated by the host country.

(IV) Sharing the experience of overseas models and supporting the sustainable development of overseas parks

With the rapid development of the TEDA Cooperation Zone, China-Africa TEDA has actively summarized and refined the development and operation model of overseas industrial parks to support the sustainable development of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. China-Africa TEDA has established a TEDA Overseas Research Institute within the company to continuously deepen research on the development model, business model, management model, feasibility demonstration, industrial positioning, spatial planning and other contents of overseas industrial parks, and to actively apply them to secure the parks’ continuous improvement; in view of the widespread shortage of talents in overseas industrial parks, China-Africa TEDA has set up a cultural exchange platform for the path and mode of overseas parks, "TEDA Overseas School", and based on the "TEDA Overseas Model", it has spread and shared its experience in the development, construction and operation management of overseas parks.

At present, the TEDA Cooperation Zone has become a model and experience exporter for overseas cooperation zones in the Belt and Road initiative. Since 2015, the China-Africa TEDA has officially kicked off the prelude to the model export, undertaking the intelligence output of the Kenya Mombasa Free Trade Zone project of the China Road and Bridge Group and the Djibouti project of China Merchants, and providing consulting services for the whole industry chain. It has participated in the pre-feasibility study review for the Congo (Brazzaville) Pointe-Noire Special Economic Zone, and conducted a pre-feasibility assessment on the Kumasi Industrial Park project in Ghana. Beginning in 2019, the China-Africa TEDA has been invited by China Communications Construction to provide business model and operation model design for the Mohammed VI Science and Technology City in Morocco. At present, many consulting projects, including in the Philippines, Benin, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia, are under negotiation.

IV. Strategic Development Plan

(I) Promoting the high-quality development of the cooperation zone and upgrading the park

In order to actively implement the instructions and requirements of the leaders of China and Egypt on the construction of the TEDA Cooperation Zone, as well as to participate in the "Eight Major Actions" for Africa, serve the overall situation of the country's reform and opening up, deepen the economic and trade cooperation between our city and Egypt, and actively promote the innovation and upgrading of the TEDA Cooperation Zone, the TEDA Cooperation Zone will continue to implement the new development concept, accelerate the high-quality development of the Cooperation Zone, successfully complete the task of upgrading during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2021-25), and upgrade the Cooperation Zone into a green modern industrial new city with advanced infrastructure, complete production and living supporting service systems, complete industrial chains, strong radiation and driving capabilities, and sustainable development.

(II) Building an international marketing service platform and optimizing the business environment

Currently, the upgrading is being carried out from six aspects: optimizing the business environment, accelerating industrial agglomeration, expanding the functions of the park, promoting the linkage between the two zones, improving financial services, and promoting cultural exchanges. In terms of optimizing the business environment, the TEDA Cooperation Zone will complete the construction of the Expansion Area to a high standard, continuously optimize its own supporting service facilities and soft services, and reach the first-class level of international economic and trade cooperation zones. In terms of accelerating industrial agglomeration, investment promotion will continue to be stepped up, and investment promotion models such as "industrial cluster" and "park in park" will be formed to realize the agglomeration of leading enterprises and their upstream and downstream supporting enterprises in the Cooperation Zone. In terms of expanding the functions of the park, the work will aim at building the Cooperation Zone into a trade and logistics hub and bridgehead for China's second-hand cars and building materials in the Middle East and North Africa, focusing on shaping the business model of each business segment and building the platform, actively promoting the expansion of the park's functions and enhancing the attractiveness of the region. In terms of promoting the linkage between the two zones, the Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone will make use of its resources and policy advantages, as well as the TEDA Cooperation Zone's geographical advantages and development foundation to promote the establishment of a two-zone linkage between Binhai New Area and Egypt's Suez Canal Corridor. It will actively improve the financial services of the park, promote the internationalization of the Chinese Renminbi, expand financing channels and innovate financing methods. The Cooperation Zone will be used as a platform to promote China-Egypt cultural exchanges and help Egypt train local talents.

(III) Establishing an overseas park consortium platform to integrate high-quality resources

At present, the China-Africa TEDA is connecting with many industrial platform resources. In June 2021, the China-Africa TEDA was invited to become a member unit of CICA Business Council and to participate in the conference.

In the first half of 2021, the China-Africa TEDA, in compliance with the national "domestic and international dual-cycle strategy", was invited to jointly explore domestic and foreign parks with the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Zone (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai Cooperation Demonstration Zone") to help implement the national "dual circulation" strategy. The two sides agreed to realize the interaction between domestic and foreign parks in the fields of logistics, trade and two-way investment in production capacity, and to explore markets along the Belt and Road.

Based on this, the China-Africa TEDA will actively promote the "TEDA Overseas Model", assist overseas economic and trade cooperation zones through consulting and trusteeship, and gradually form the resource integration and optimized allocation of overseas industrial parks. With the advancement of the "Belt and Road" construction and the "dual circulation" strategy, the China-Africa TEDA was invited to undertake consulting work on industrial parks in many countries along the "Belt and Road", and TEDA’s overseas model has also been recognized by many governments and enterprises. As the crystallization of Chinese solutions and wisdom on the "Belt and Road" initiative, the TEDA Cooperation Zone will provide stronger support for the development and construction of many Chinese overseas parks.

Expansion Area of the TEDA Cooperation Zone

V. Contact Information

Contact: Cao Xue

Email：caoxue@teda.com.cn

Website: http://www.setc-zone.com/

WeChat Official Account: cateda