“The Belt & Road” Investment in Egypt and Romania Seminar， sponsored by international trade office of CNTAC， China Textile Go Global Union and CCPIT TEX， was held in National Exhibition and Convention Center （Shanghai） in the afternoon on March 14th， 2018. This seminar focused on key cooperative countries in Africa and Central and Eastern Europe along The Belt & Road — Egypt and Romania — to conduct in-depth study on investment opportunities and challenges in Egypt and Romania textile industry.

This seminar invited Mahfouz M.T. Marzouk， vice chairman of Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt， Li Daixin， vice president of China-Africa Taida Investment Shareholding Co.， Ltd. and Aurelian Neagu， consul general of Consulate General of Romania in Shanghai respectively introduced investment policies and environment in Egypt and Romania textile and apparel industries as well as latest status and development plan of Suez Canal Economic Zone in Egypt and ChinaEgypt·Taida Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone.

Xu Yingxin， vice president of CNTAC mentioned in his speech that， “the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China convened in October last year described beautiful development blueprint in the following 30 years in China and erected a programmatic flag for development of China textile industry. Chinas economy in the new era has transited from high-speed growth stage into high-quality development stage”. “Peoples increasing growing demand for beautiful life” is the core impetus promoting high-quality development within the industry. In the new historic stage， China textile industry has definitely confirmed new industrial localization “science and technology， fashion and green”， namely innovation-driven scientific and technology industry， responsibility-oriented green industry and cultureguided fashion industry. The Belt & Road Initiative has brought about new opportunities for China textile industry to “step out”， integrate global resources and realize high-quality development in this crucial period of China textile industry with historic changes. There are totally 65 countries and regions along the Belt & Road with 4.4 billion popu- lation and economic aggregate of USD 2，100 billion which occupies 29% of global economic aggregate， so its an important and non-negligible emerging market. In 2017， Chinas Belt & Road construction entered a new stage featuring comprehensive and pragmatic cooperation， and trade investment cooperation continued to be deepened. In 2017， gross export of China textile and apparel reached USD 266.95 billion which increased by 1.53% year on year. In Chinas textile and apparel export market structure， textile and apparel export in countries and regions along the Belt& Road occupied 33.36%， and the proportions in main traditional export markets Europe， America and Japan were 18.09%， 17.43% and 7.8% respectively. From the above data， it can be seen that with deepened promotion of the Belt & Road Initiative， the effect has gradually come into being. In 2017， Chinas direct investment on countries along the Belt & Road reached USD 14.4 billion. Textile and apparel enterprises also actively carried out the Belt& Road Initiative and proactively started layout in these countries， not only in surrounding countries but also starting to extend to Central and Eastern Europe and Africa. Taking full advantages of advantages and natural endowment of related countries， these enterprises mastered advantageous resources in vertical industrial chain and enhanced their international competitiveness.

The “Belt & Road” intersection — New kinetic energy for investment in Egypt

As intersection of “Silk Road Economic Belt”and “Maritime Silk Road in the 21st Century”， Egypt has strengthened its localization on Chinas foreign trade and economic cooperation layout. China and Egypt have jointly built the Belt & Road with obvious complementary advantages. Located at transport hub of Asia， Africa and Europe， Egypt had prominent regional advantages as western intersection of the Belt & Road. New Suez Canal in construction and canal corridor development project will bring about a large quantity of investment opportunities. Mahfouz M.T. Marzouk introduced general situation， infrastructure， labor force and related laws and regulations in Egypt economy and textile and apparel industry as well as opportunities in Suez Canal Economic Zone in details to participants. Egypt is in possession of 5，500 textile and apparel enterprises with about 1.5 million employers which occupies 30% of national total employers. Egypt textile export amount in 2016/1027 fiscal year was USD 771 million with 1.31% year-on-year growth rate. Textile industry has been listed into one of the industries on which Egypt government lays emphasis for development. In 2016， Egypt Department of Trade and Industry granted industrial certificates to 255 home textile enterprises and provided about 51，000 employment opportunities with an investment of 2.3 billion Egyptian pounds. The Egypt government has put forward 2025 development vision of textile industry and planned to attract foreign investment with preferential policies so as to create 1 million employment opportunities and increase export amount to USD 10 billion. After 2014， political situation in Egypt has tended to be stable with obviously improved economic status. Egypt government has formulated a series of new related laws and regulations like New Investment Law to improve investment environment and attract foreign investment. Continuously improved infrastructure， stable and low-price electricity， low labor force cost， raw material advantages and development of Suez Canal Economic Zone as a world-class value-added service center will all make Egypt become an investment hotspot for African manufacturing industry.

Taida cooperation zone helps Chinese enterprises to“enter” Africa

As Chinas the Belt & Road Initiative and Egypt “Suez Canal Corridor” development plan continuously deepen， setting up China overseas economic and trade cooperation zone in Egypt is of far-reaching significance to reinforcing and deepening production capacity cooperation between the two countries. The Chinese government has already listed Egypt into one of countries appropriate for construction of China overseas economic and trade cooperation zones. In 2008， as China-Africa Taida Investment Co.， Ltd. organized by Tianjin Taida Investment Shareholding Co.， Ltd. and China-Africa Development Fund formally contracted to build China-Egypt ？ Taida Suez Canal Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone. Drawing attention from leaders of the two countries and through nearly 10-year development and construction， the cooperation zone has gradually become an important platform for China-Egypt production capacity cooperation. Li Daixin introduced that，“first-stage area of Taida cooperation zone is 1.34 square kilometers and totally USD 105 million has been accumulatively invested in the construction. The development has been completed and the lands have been sold out. The garden is of complete supporting facilities with Chinese small business incubator containing 12 standard plants； comprehensive supporting service enters including investment service building， four-star hotels and employees apartments have been built， so has been supporting recreational facilities like Taida Park. Up to the end of 2016， stage-one asset value of Taida cooperation zone reached USD 153 million， attracting 70 enterprises， where there were 32 manufacturing enterprises. USD 1 billion contracted foreign investment was attracted， annual sales volume reached USD 180 million and import & export value was USD 290 million， solving employment problems for nearly 3，000 people. Planned total investment in secondstage six-square-kilometer project of Taida cooperation zone is USD 230 million， planning to attract about 150-180 enterprises. Investment amount to be attracted is anticipated to reach as high as USD 2 billion， USD 8-10 billion sales volume will be realized and about 4，000 employment opportunities will be provided. On November 30th， 2015， first second-stage two-square-kilometer plot was formally handed over. As president Xi Jinping and Egyptian president Sisi unveiled the nameplate for second-stage project of Taida cooperation zone on January 21st， 2016， infrastructure development and construction of the first second-stage project plot was officially carried out. At present， cumulative input in second-stage project has reached USD 45 million. Two-square-kilometer road and municipal infrastructure project in the first stage were completed in the first quarter in 2017. Suez Bay Northwestern Economic Zone， located at starting end of“Suez Canal Corridor”， will gain the priority to obtain powerful resource allocation in Egypt. As a key project in this zone， second-stage project of Taida cooperation zone is rightly located at strategic gold conjunction point between two countries and will welcome a development opportunity once in a blue moon.

Uncover new opportunities within textile and apparel industry in “Tiger of Europe”

As an EU member state， Romania is an important pivot for China to cooperate with central and eastern European countries and even the whole Europe and also an important country along the Belt & Road Initiative. As a newly industrialized country， Romania has once been praised as “Tiger of Europe”. It has become of one of the most attractive target investment destinations in Central and Eastern Europe by virtue of advantages in labor force， land and taxation. Aurelian Neagu pointed out that Romania was one of the powerful traditional textile and apparel country in Eastern Europe. As the traditional pillar industry， textile and apparel industry plays a significant role in its national economy and foreign trade. At present there are about 6，096 textile and apparel enterprises with 190，381 people occupied in this industry. Romanian apparel processing industry is of favorable foundation with advanced technological level. 5% enterprises produce clothes in way of processing materials supplied by clients， 91% products are exported to EU， and main products are tights and female tops （blouse）. Average wage level in Romanian industry is Euro 750/month while that in textile and apparel industry is Euro 500/month. As Romania has weak textile industry， it needs to import yarns， auxiliaries and accessories. If processing value-added ratio in Romania reaches above 51%， then this can be considered as local production in Romania. With national tariff exemption and quota for products entering EU market and countries signing free trade agreements with EU， this brings broad space for cooperation of Chinese enterprises in upstream apparel industry with Romanian apparel enterprises. If Chinese enterprises can set up fabric processing plants in free trade ports in Romania， they can enjoy active policy support from the Romanian government. In addition， related policies inside EU and the Romanian government have supported Romania to attract foreign investment.

As one of the main supporting activities for the co-located Spring Fairs sponsored by CNTAC， this seminar has drawn much concern from numerous backbone enterprises in textile and apparel industry and enterprise participants， and all seats on the seminar were occupied， thus it can be seen that domestic textile enterprises are urgent to grasp new opportunities brought by the Belt & Road Initiative so as to accelerate transformation and upgrading and further improve their international competitiveness. This seminar was presided by Lin Yunfeng， vice president of CCPIT TEX.

Proposition and implementation of the Belt & Road Initiative have endowed Chinese textile and apparel enterprises numerous opportunities for development. Chinese textile enterprises should take full advantages of foreign investment and mergers and acquisitions， and conduct vertical extension of industrial chain for all kinds of global superior resources like raw materials， design， brands and market channels so as to improve added value of the whole industry. In addition， these enterprises should sufficiently combine and utilize complementation of countries and regions along the Belt & Road with China textile and apparel field to realize sharing and winwin pattern. China Textile Go Global Union， international trade office of CNTAC， and CCPIT TEX will serve Chinese enterprises as always and help them to “step out” and establish the cooperation bridge between Chinese and foreign textile enterprises.