Egypt's Minister of Military Production Mohamed Saeid el-Asar and Local Development Minister Mahmoud Shaarawy have been holding discussions with officials from Foton Motor and IMUT (International Marathon United Technology) about the planned joint venture to manufacture electric buses, Egyptian news agency MENA reported.

“Manufacturing electric buses in Egypt is part of a government plan to upgrade the fleet of the public transport authority with an aim to ease the traffic congestion in the capital and the countries’ largest cities,” Shaarawy was quoted as saying after the 31 July meeting.

Beijing-headquartered Foton Motor is a subsidiary of the BAIC Group.

Egyptian engineers and technicians will be trained in Foton headquarters in Beijing, and 48 electric buses will be delivered to the Egyptian Military Factory 200 in December 2019. Under a Memorandum of Understanding, the factory will then produce 2,000 buses over four years, with a domestic component target rate of 45%. A delegation from Foton visited the Army 200 Factory in June to supervise the preparation of production lines.

Foton has ambitious plans for bus exports worldwide.

In April, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan paid an official visit to Foton Motor Group headquarters in Beijing, while in China to attend the 2nd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

On the sidelines of the forum, a joint venture agreement was signed between Gong Yueqiong, President of Foton Motor Group, and Nopadol Chiaravanont, Vice Chairman of Industrial Business Group at Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group). The two parties will jointly establish a joint venture company in Thailand, which will set up a manufacturing company and a sales company.

And last November, Ghana’s leading automobile distributor, Japan Motors Trading Company Ltd (JMTC), introduced the Foton AUV Buses locally.

China’s involvement in Egypt has been steadily growing, including work on the under-construction new administrative capital city 45 kilometres from Cairo.

The four-year Central Business District (CBD) project got underway in May 2018 and is expected to be completely finished in early 2023 including the giant Iconic Tower.

The Iconic Tower will have a height of 385 meters, and will be the tallest tower in Africa. It is being built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC).

And in April this year, the government of Tianjin and the General Authority of the Economic Zone of the Suez Canal signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the second phase of the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA).

TEDA forms part of the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Ain Sokhna district of Suez province, which is east of Cairo.