CAIRO, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Ministry of Manpower and China's Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) company signed on Thursday a protocol to provide the Chinese firm with Egyptian labor force.
Under the protocol, which will last for two years, the Egyptian ministry will provide TEDA with the needed trained workers to work in the company's projects and factories in Suez province.
The signing ceremony was attended by Egyptian minister of labor force Mohammed Sa'afan and officials from the Chinese company, according to Egypt's official MENA news agency.
The minister told a press conference after the signing of the protocol that his ministry is ready to use its vocational training center in Suez to train young people that the company needs, "provided that the training would ultimately lead direct recruitment of young people who have been trained."
The minister stressed the importance of the private sector in the Egyptian economy, pointing out that it represents the backbone of the economy and a solid foundation of its construction and development.
TEDA is currently developing a total area of more than 7 square km in Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) in Ain Sokhna district of Suez province, east of the Egyptian capital Cairo.
TEDA's first development phase of an area of 1.34 square km attracted about 68 enterprises with investment of 1 billion U.S. dollars, providing more than 3,700 job opportunities for Egyptian youth, according to the SCZone.
The ongoing second phase that targets the development of 6 square km is expected to attract 150 companies to the SCZone and provide about 40,000 job opportunities.
China is currently the biggest trade partner of Egypt, and tops other foreign investors in terms of the growth rate of investment in the Arab country.
The trade exchange between China and Egypt hit a record high of 13.87 billion dollars in 2018, while Egyptian exports to China rose to 1.8 billion dollars for the first time, according to official statistics.
Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang said recently that the bilateral trade volume reached 6.5 billion dollars in the first half of this year.
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