China now biggest investor in Suez

“We are welcoming very much the Belt and Road Initiative,” he said. “We are very happy that the Chinese are seeing us being among the bright spots for development and sustainability along the Belt and Road.”

As for complaints by some companies that the Egyptian government raised the tax imposed on investors in industrial zones from 10 percent to 22.5 percent, Darwish said this did not apply to those established and operating in Egypt under the old law, like TEDA.

“Companies that started in the zone with a 10 percent tax remain in the zone with a 10 percent tax,” he said.

“TEDA was established under the old law, but new tenants of TEDA that came after the new law is enacted will be subject to the 22.5 percent tax,” he said.

Darwish said the investment law was still being reviewed and hopefully an attractive formula for investors would emerge.

He said a comparison of the SCZone with 17 other zones for industries worldwide showed that the Egyptian zone had a competitive advantage in specific areas such as the pharmaceutical, automotive and food and beverage industries.

“Initially, I have been doing general promotion of the zone, meeting with associations of businessmen in China, France, the United States, Japan, South Korea and others,” Darwish said.

“But now I am more focused on targeting certain companies and trying to attract leading investors to the zone to build clusters of specific industries.”