President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi met on Tuesday 23/12/2014 the Egyptian-Chinese Business Council.

In his speech at the Council's meeting, Sisi said that Egypt and China have been bound by strong relations for decades.

Sisi noted that he was carrying a clear message from the Egyptian people, who launched two revolutions in almost three years, inviting the Chinese people into a serious partnership and constructive cooperation for supporting sustainable development efforts in Egypt.

Sisi added that since the political road map of Egypt has been outlined for attaining political stability and a solid democratic system, a referendum on the new constitution was held in January 2014 followed by the presidential elections in May 2014 with massive voter turnout and in a fair and transparent way.

The President pointed out that preparations are now underway for implementing the third and last step of the road map, which is the parliamentary elections.

Sisi said "Going side by side with the political action, the Egyptian people had demands for changing the economic administration of the country".

"Frankly speaking, the Egyptian economic situation was very difficult given the very slow economic growth rates and increasing inflation, let alone the escape of foreign investments from the country", he said.

Sisi added "The challenge is big", pointing out that the huge potentials of the Egyptian people were unleashed to stand up to this challenge.

"Therefore, an economic road map was drawn up with a view to reviving the national economy after several crises that plagued it over the past years", he noted.

Sisi said "The economic road map envisaged structural reforms to address the chronic problems that hindered attaining higher growth rates. Reducing energy subsidy, for instance, has saved up to six billion dollars."

Sisi added that Egypt has adopted a financial policy to increase investments through launching stimulus measures to upgrade the efficiency of the national economy. He also made reference to the launch of mega development projects that go side by side with creating new jobs for small and medium sized businesses in an attempt to cut down unemployment rates in Egypt.

The president said "These measures have yielded positive results, including an improvement in the credit rating of Egypt by the three major international institutions concerned and turning their future outlook for the Egyptian economy from negative to stable".

Sisi said that the World Bank has expected an economic growth rate of 3.1 percent during 2015 and 3.5 percent in 2016, adding that the government is targeting a rate of 7 percent by the year 2020.

The President said that the Egyptian stock exchange main index has exceeded 9,000 points for the first time in August 2014, adding that the foreign currency with the Central Bank of Egypt restored 17 billion dollars at a time when Egypt is committed to paying back debts and deposits of foreign countries.

Sisi added that Egypt attracted direct foreign investments of 4.7 billion dollars in 2013/2014 fiscal year with the government seeking to attract 10 billion dollars over the coming fiscal year.

"The government is working to improve the investment climate in Egypt to lure more investments through adopting several serious steps on this score", he remarked.

The President referred to completing a unified investment law that keeps in mind all developments of the money markets and the needs of investors along with protecting foreign investments.

Furthermore, Sisi said a mechanism was developed to settle disputes between the government and investors with the government already settling 14 cases over the past six months.

The President also cited, as an example of these measures, upgrading partnership between the public and private sectors along with developing the productivity efficiency of workers.

Sisi added that the state of political stability that is prevailing now in Egypt and the start of economic reform measures have encouraged several international companies to resume activities in Egypt. Also, the Egyptian government has signed 29 agreements for oil and natural gas exploration at a total value of 2 billion dollars.