From the shores of the Bohai Bay to the shores of the Red Sea, we have embarked on a career journey of 15000 miles with our youth... The sentence written on the front page of the internal manual of China Africa Teda Investment Co., Ltd. has unveiled the legendary journey of "Teda people" replicating China's industrial new city in foreign lands.

Focusing on infrastructure construction and production capacity cooperation, the China Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, with the concern of the two heads of state, has gradually become a demonstration project for docking China's the Belt and Road Initiative and Egypt's Suez Canal Corridor Economic Belt.

The China Egypt Teda Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, located at the intersection of the three continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, is locally referred to as "Teda". This is a transliteration of the acronym TEDA for Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Zone, founded in 1984. The association of visual signs further reflects the relationship between the two - the Tianjin Development Zone logo consists of TEDA and one green leaf shaped "Tian" character, while the logo of the China Egypt Teda Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone is surrounded by six green leaves in the shape of a flower.

The character 'Tian' in Teda symbolizes the modern urban consciousness of reasonable planning. We present it in the shape of an Egyptian 'Yimi flower', hoping to write a miracle here. Liu Aimin, Chairman of China Africa Taida Investment Co., Ltd., said that the Yimi flower is a transparent 6-petal flower in Egyptian legend, regarded as a symbol of tenacity, faith, and miracles.

In the mid-1990s, Egypt was impressed by the rapid development of China's development zones and expressed hope that China would help Egypt build development zones in Suez. The Suez region is a Gobi region, bordered by the Red Sea to the east and more than 120 kilometers to the west from the capital Cairo. Its geographical location and geological environment are very similar to those of the Tianjin Development Zone.

Over the past 15 years, the cooperation zone has attracted 145 enterprises to settle in, with actual investment exceeding 1.7 billion US dollars, accumulated sales exceeding 3.8 billion US dollars, paid taxes exceeding 200 million US dollars, directly solving employment problems of over 5000 people, and industry driving employment of about 50000 people.

Not only are office buildings and production lines, but supporting facilities such as star rated hotels and amusement parks also adorn them. Ahmed Abdul Baki, who is deeply involved in the construction of the cooperation zone, said that he and his Chinese colleagues have built a city in the desert.

At present, the cooperation zone has attracted multiple Chinese enterprises such as Jushi, Xidian, Midea, and international enterprises from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Canada, and other places. The 1.34 square kilometer starting area has been fully developed, and four major leading industries have been preliminarily formed: new building materials, petroleum equipment, high and low voltage equipment, and mechanical manufacturing. 40 enterprises have also settled in the 6 square kilometer expansion area, attracting over 300 million US dollars in agreed investment.

Nahra Imad, 39 years old, is now the CEO of TEDA Special Zone Development Company in Egypt. She said that the cooperation zone has arranged for her to receive training in China five times, learning about what an economic and trade cooperation zone is, how to formulate overall plans, how to build and operate, and how to do marketing, giving her the greatest growth space. According to reports, the proportion of local employees in the cooperation zone has reached 90%, with women accounting for one fifth.

Standing at the new starting point of the 15th anniversary, the Vision 2030 Strategic Upgrading Plan of TEDA Cooperation Zone will be released, which will further promote the three major projects of improving industrial agglomeration capacity, industrial service capacity and industrial supporting capacity, and better serve the construction of the the Belt and Road.

Walid Jamal al Din, Chairman of the General Administration of the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt, said that the TEDA Cooperation Zone is located in the hub of the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, and is an important support point of the "the Belt and Road". It has a unique strategic position. He is not only optimistic about the next 15 years of the cooperation zone, but also happy to see the cooperation zone become a century old brand of cooperation between China and Egypt.Editor/Ma Xue