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

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.