SUEZ, Egypt - The Egyptian government signed Saturday an investment agreement with Chinese TEDA Corporation to develop part of a joint industrial zone near the Suez Canal.

Egypt's economic authority and TEDA signed the 45-year contract under which investment projects will be established in an area of six square kilometers in the industrial zone.

TEDA Chairman Liu Aimin said his company aims to invest $500 million in the area and bring in $2 billion in the near future.

"We already brought investments of about $600 million thorough 38 investment projects in the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone," Liu noted.

The signing ceremony was attended by Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil, Investment Minister Osama Saleh, Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Song Aiguo as well as other Egyptian and Chinese officials.

Qandil stressed that these Chinese investments in Suez represented "part of the Egyptian development dream to turn Suez from a mere passage for sea traffic that brings in $5.2 billion annually to an investment zone that would in time bring in $100 billion."

"Some people try to depict Egypt as a place of turmoil with stone-throwing and Molotov cocktails, but I tell them these investments show the real picture of Egypt," the prime minister added. ? ?

Song hailed the Chinese projects in Suez as "a symbol for the friendship and strategic cooperation between China and Egypt in the new stage," saying Egypt is an important partner for China and that his government would encourage more Chinese investments in Egypt.

Earlier on Saturday, Qandil made a tour in the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone, laid the foundation stone of a medium-sized enterprise and inaugurated the economic zone's investor service center which cost $20 million from the Chinese side.