China goes global in Egypt : a special economic zone in Suez

Date
2013-02
Authors
Scott, Emma
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch University, Centre for Chinese Studes
Abstract
This Discussion Paper examines China's economic and technological zone in Suez, Egypt, in view of the Go Global policy. In order to establish a comparative framework for examining whether the Suez Economic & Trade Co-operation Zone was modelled in line with China's Special Economic Zones (SEZs), this paper maps out the key features of the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA), as Tianjin Investment Holdings was the partner appointed by the Chinese government to develop the Suez zone. Not only does the paper find support for this argument, but also finds evidence to state that the Chinese government has been involved in shaping Egypt's special economic zones projects from the very beginning. The findings also show that the aims of Go Global policy are being realised through the Suez zone. The zone has potential; however, there exist a number of pitfalls of which China should be weary including over-expenditure and Egypt's domestic politics. A surprising finding was that TEDA is set to become a bigger and more important actor in China's Africa strategy, where Egypt is only the beginning.
Description
The original publication is available at http://www.sun.ac.za/ccs
Keywords
Economic zoning -- China, Egypt -- Politics and government, China -- Foreign investment in Egypt, Tianjin Economic Technical Development Area (TEDA) -, China -- Foreign economic relations -- Egypt, Egypt -- Foreign economic relations -- China, Suez Economic and Trade Co-operation Zone, Economic zoning -- Egypt, Go global policy
Citation
Scott, E. 2013. China goes global in Egypt : a special economic zone in Suez. CCS Discussion paper, February 2013. Stellenbosch University, Centre for Chinese Studies : 36 p.