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Egyptian-Chinese Entrepreneurs Association (ECEA) Launches To Boost Business Opportunities

November 30, 2022

In line with Egypt’s strategy that focuses on boosting the national economy and fostering foreign investments in the country, a ceremony organised on Sunday at the New Administrative Capital to launch the Egyptian-Chinese Entrepreneurs Association (ECEA) in the presence of Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait and Minister of Public Business Sector Mahmoud Esmat, the Former Secretary General of the Arab League and the honoury President of ECEA Amre Moussa, the CEO of the Egyptian Sovereign Fund (TESF) Ayman Soliman, the Head of ECEA’s Board of Trustees Magd El-Din El-Manzalawy, President of ECEA Omar Wang and the ECEA’s Secretary General Mohamed Alaa alongside with a bunch of association heads, parliament members, businessmen.

Within his speech during the event, Minister of finance Mohamed Maait stated that ECEA is a fresh platform for an effective and sustainable dialogue between the business communities in the two countries that aims at exploring more of investment opportunities in areas of priority to the state and that are closely related to the country’s sustainable development goals agenda.

That includes the promising opportunities in field of green transition, renewables, scientific research. Pharma industries technologies as well as the industrial techniques in a way that is consistent with the presidential directives to localise the advanced technologies in a range of economic sectors, according to Maait.

The minister also asserted the importance of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) in terms of reinforcing China’s Silk Road Initiative, particularly through the Egyptian Chinese Zone for Economic and Trade Cooperation, thus contributing to boosting utilising the Suez Canal strategic zone as a logistic-economic hub.

“The Government of Egypt, in collaboration with the Chinese Embassy in Egypt, was eager to establish the ECEA with an aim of creating a platform for a continuous connection in order to discussing avenues of a fruitful and constructive cooperation in line with the increasing keenness from the two sides to boost the strategic partnership. Through launching ECEA, we are looking forward to jointly working to eliminate any kind of investment obstacles and attracting more of Chinese investments into the Egyptian market”, said Maait.

For his part, Former Secretary General of the Arab League and the Honoury President of ECEA Amre Moussa noted that the association has a mission of pushing forward the relation between the two countries in consistent with the state’s aspiration in the 21 century, as well as enhancing the cooperation between China and Egypt, especially amid the ongoing economic, health and political global challenges.

Moussa also said that investments between the two countries should support the new trends in the industries of tech, digital, artificial Intelligence (AI) and the environment, adding that Silk Road Initiative related projects between China and the Arab countries has shifted the cooperation mindset from colonial thinking into economic and cooperative one and that could support the cooperation between the countries going forward.

CEO of TESF Ayman Soliman stressed that the fund supports the efforts of attracting more investments into the Egyptian market across various sectors, especially the industrial and manufacturing ones, chiefly food processing as Egypt has a huge agricultural production that need more investments to localise its related technologies.

On his side, Head of ECEA’s Board of Trustees Magd El-Din El-Manzalawy welcomed the attendees, noting that Egyptian-Chinese ties have witnessed a notable development in all sectors and proved its ability to keep pace with the international and regional transformations and changes.

He added that ECEA is ready to enhance the bilateral relations and the current cooperation in the sake of the two parties.

“ECEA targets seizing the ongoing robust ties between the two countries to improve the collaboration between the business communities between the two countries, particularly under the Silk Road initiative, and create a good climate for Chinese investments, as well as benefitting from these relations in boosting the Chinese industries in the Egyptian market and achieving Egypt’s vision and strategy of localising industries of priority”, he explained.

ECEA is a platform meant to insure an effective level of partnerships between Egypt and China with an aim to raise the economic and cultural relations between the two countries.

It also targets increasing the Chinese investments in the Egyptian market and helping the Chinese companies to do its work.

ECEA is established in accordance with the Egyptian regulations. Egypt’s Ministry of Social Solidarity greenlights ECEA establishment on 22 February 2022 as an international and social entity with a legal identity.

Egyptian-Chinese Entrepreneurs Association Egyptian-Chinese Entrepreneurs Association

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh

Egypt ‘s Sovereign Fund Launches A $300 million Fund To Invest In Healthcare Ventures

May 8, 2020

Healthcare businesses and startups in Egypt in parts of the Middle East and North would soon have a new fund to tap from. The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) and the New York-based investment manager Concord International Investments are planning a joint venture to raise and manage a healthcare fund that will invest mainly in Egypt, but also in the Middle East and Africa.

“Investing in healthcare is a priority for the Egyptian government at this critical time when the world is facing the new Covid-19 pandemic crisis and the quality of the population’s healthcare is an integral part of the Egypt 2030 Vision for Sustainable Development,” Hala El Said, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development and TSFE’s chairperson, said. “This diversified healthcare fund reflects the implementation of TSFE’s mandate to fast track attracting investments to public assets in a value accretive manner, while increasing private sector participation in the Egyptian economy.”

Here is What You Need To Know

The fund’s initial target size is $300 million (Dh1.1 billion) with the aim of achieving long-term capital appreciation through direct investment opportunities in Egypt, according to a statement.
The fund will seek to attract “sizeable” foreign direct investments and will identify co-investment opportunities in significantly large projects.
The fund is expected to benefit the growing population in Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with about 100 million people in need of healthcare services.

*African countries are nowhere around the world’s ten largest sovereign wealth funds*

Read also: Here Are Reasons Egypt’s Startup Ecosystem Is Booming

The Target Of The Fund

Through the new partnership, Egypt ‘s Sovereign fund intends to target the creation of export-oriented healthcare entities covering various specialties. The fund would be managed by Concord International Investments.
It also seeks to unlock value in high-growth companies, under-utilised assets and untapped specialties to be able to capitalise on Egypt’s geographical location and relatively lower services and production costs to serve Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the statement said.

“Both the healthcare and the pharmaceutical sectors have been on the top of the [TSFE’s] priority list, and today’s MOU signing culminates our collective efforts in securing FDI in those fields,” said Ayman Soliman, TSFE’s chief executive.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.