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CAIRO, May 21-- The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is very important for Chinese companies in Africa, particularly in Egypt, an Egyptian economic expert said in an interview on Tuesday. "Certainly, Chinese companies, especially those located in the Suez Canal's economic zone, will benefit from the AfCFTA that will be enforced in few days," Waleed Gab-Allah, professor of financial and economic jurisdictions at Cairo University, told Xinhua. The agreement is a basic tool for attracting more Chinese investment into Egypt, he added. Gab-Allah said that China's industrial developer Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) is currently developing a total area of 7.23 square km in Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) in Ain Sokhna district of Suez province east of the capital Cairo. The professor described TEDA as a good example for the Chinese mega projects that could market its products to African countries via the AfCFTA. TEDA attracted many enterprises to the SCZone, including China's fiberglass giant manufacturer Jushi, which helped Egypt become one of the largest fiberglass producers and exporters in the world over the past years. He forecasted a 50-percent increase in the Chinese exports to the African countries when the agreement comes into force. "The African free trade agreement will encourage more Chinese companies to work and invest in Egypt's economic zone to benefit from the Suez Canal passage to Africa with reduced tariffs," he said. | 
