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CAIRO, Sept. 17-- China Development Bank (CDB), the largest Chinese bank for foreign investment and financing cooperation, on Sunday signed two deals to provide loans to Egypt's two major financial institutions SAIBANK and Banque Misr. The deals were signed at a ceremony at Banque Misr headquarters in Cairo, which was attended by Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Song Aiguo and representatives from the Central Bank of Egypt. The first deal included two loan agreements, under which the CDB will provide SAIBANK with a loan of 40 million U.S. dollars for small and medium-sized enterprises, and a special RMB denominated loan of 260 million yuan (40 million U.S. dollars) for infrastructure construction. "The deal includes about 40 million dollars and their Chinese equivalent amount to promote small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and create many job opportunities," SAIBANK Vice Chairman Hassan Abdel-Meguid told Xinhua ahead of the signing ceremony. He added that it comes within the framework of Sino-Egyptian cooperation in the light of the growing friendship and partnership between the two countries. The second deal was a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between CDB and Banque Misr, in which the CDB will provide the Egyptian bank with a loan in Chinese currency RMB for the first time. "The loan amount is still being studied. Having the loan in the Chinese local currency will help provide loans to Chinese companies that operate or want to enter the Egyptian market in their own currency, which will encourage their investment in Egypt," Banque Misr Vice Chairman Akef Abdel-Latif al-Maghraby told Xinhua after signing the MoU. | 
