* In Egypt, the Belt and Highway Initiative has advanced right into a platform for transformative collaboration, extending past infrastructure to embody agriculture, know-how and business.
* China’s Zhongman Petroleum and Pure Fuel Group, working in Egypt since 2016, has drilled greater than 680 wells throughout the nation, from the Sinai Peninsula to Aswan.
* For a lot of Egyptians, these initiatives signify greater than infrastructure — they signify progress towards higher meals safety, steady revenue and a hopeful future.
CAIRO, June 1 (Xinhua) — As summer season begins, patches of lush farmland stretch throughout Egypt’s Western Desert, an space that, till just lately, was dominated by sand and rocks. Because of the deep wells drilled by the Egypt department of China’s Zhongman Petroleum and Pure Fuel Group (ZPEC), wheat, alfalfa and potatoes now thrive in tidy rows underneath the desert solar.
These wells, a part of a broader effort to reclaim desert land for agriculture, have reworked the barren panorama into productive farmland, providing a mannequin for sustainable growth in arid areas and underscoring the potential of worldwide cooperation in addressing meals safety and ecological restoration.
The challenge is an instance of the high-quality Belt and Highway cooperation. In Egypt, the Belt and Highway Initiative (BRI) has advanced right into a platform for transformative collaboration, extending past infrastructure to embody agriculture, know-how and business. By tackling urgent challenges corresponding to meals insecurity, unemployment and technological gaps, the initiative helps to put the groundwork for extra resilient and sustainable progress.
DRILLING FOR RESOURCE OF LIFE
Egypt, residence to over 100 million folks, grapples with the daunting activity of increasing farmland in a rustic the place solely about 4 % of the land is arable. To scale back reliance on meals imports, the Egyptian authorities has stepped up efforts to reclaim desert land since 2015, with water sources growth a vital a part of this push.
ZPEC, working in Egypt since 2016, has performed a key function. Its groups — composed of Chinese language and Egyptian staff — have drilled greater than 680 wells throughout the nation, from the Sinai Peninsula to Aswan.
Zhao Baojiang, challenge supervisor for ZPEC’s Owainat well-drilling operation in Egypt, stated his group has drilled 63 wells, every about 450 meters deep, in lower than a 12 months by overcoming such challenges as excessive temperatures, sandstorms, advanced geology and logistical hurdles.
“We’re having our first wheat harvest this 12 months, and we’re very comfortable to cooperate with the Chinese language firm,” stated Abou-elKhier Ibrahim, supervisor of the Owainat sector of the Way forward for Egypt agricultural challenge.
Wheat, Egypt’s dietary cornerstone, is in excessive demand. In accordance with a report launched by the UN Meals and Agriculture Group, per capita wheat consumption in Egypt averages about 146 kg yearly.
Mohamed Elhosary, electromechanical division supervisor of the Owainat sector of the Way forward for Egypt agricultural challenge, estimated that every feddan (about 0.42 hectares) of the farmland in Owainat can yield 3 tons of wheat.
“The yield from every feddan is adequate to cowl the annual wheat consumption of not less than 20 Egyptians,” Zhao Wutao, basic supervisor of the ZPEC department in Egypt, instructed Xinhua.
INNOVATION BRINGS BENEFITS
In Minya Province, 360 km south of Cairo, ZPEC can also be supporting the farm of Canal Sugar Firm, a three way partnership between Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The farm allotted a good portion of its land to sugar beet manufacturing for a large-scale native refinery.
ZPEC engineers confronted technical hurdles there as properly. In accordance with Abumesalam Mohamed Gouda, operations supervisor of ZPEC’s Egypt department, the groundwater layer in Minya’s desert is unstable, and large-diameter drilling poses dangers of collapse and leakage.
To handle these points, the corporate’s technical group launched air foam drilling know-how, which makes use of steady foam as drilling fluid to forestall leakage and improve effectivity. This methodology was later shared with native corporations to assist enhance their efficiency.
Hassan Gamal, technical supervisor of the Canal Sugar farm, stated that the 193 wells drilled by ZPEC can irrigate 30,000 feddans (12,600 hectares) of land. In 2023 alone, the farm planted 22,000 feddans (9,240 hectares) of beets, which have been processed into sugar and offered extensively. “This would not have been potential with out ZPEC’s wells,” he stated.
Past agriculture, ZPEC’s work has additionally supported native employment and abilities coaching.
Mohamed Gaber, who joined ZPEC as a employee 5 years in the past, is now a platform supervisor. He credited his Chinese language colleagues for educating him abilities and serving to him navigate challenges. “I all the time attempt to do my greatest with the help of teammates, and I am proud to develop in such a group,” he stated.
GROWING PARTNERSHIP
For a lot of Egyptians, these initiatives signify greater than infrastructure — they signify progress towards higher meals safety, steady revenue, and a hopeful future, consultants stated, expressing their eagerness to develop collaboration with Chinese language enterprises.
“This can be a notable and really optimistic contribution by the Chinese language firm in advancing agricultural growth in Egypt,” Ahmed Galal, dean of the Increased Institute for Agricultural Cooperation in Cairo, instructed Xinhua.
“Any efforts in extracting water or growing Egypt’s water assets straight result in optimistic outcomes for agricultural growth in Egypt … We actually hope it continues,” he stated.
The well-drilling challenge is simply a part of broader cooperation between Egypt and China underneath the BRI. Different initiatives embody the Central Enterprise District of Egypt’s new administrative capital, a textile metropolis in Sadat Metropolis, and the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Financial and Commerce Cooperation Zone in Ain Sokhna. These ventures are seen by Egyptian consultants as important engines for job creation, industrialization and joint growth.
“China is now more and more seen as a growth associate that contributes to job creation and improved dwelling requirements,” stated Waleed Gaballah, a member of the Egyptian Affiliation for Political Economic system, Statistics and Laws.
He burdened China’s management in renewable power, electrical automobiles and superior manufacturing. “Offering entry to those applied sciences at an inexpensive value to international locations taking part within the BRI might make a serious shift within the lifestyle of their societies.”
Echoing his view, Galal stated he appears to be like ahead to extra Chinese language funding in his nation, as the continuing Egypt-China cooperation underneath the BRI is “fruitful and promising.”
“We in Egypt really want all such investments. I additionally hope this cooperation grows in all fields, as a result of it’s, to begin with, mutually helpful — a win-win state of affairs when it comes to shared good points and joint growth,” he stated. (Video reporters: Yang Yiran, Dong Xiuzhu, Sui Xiankai; video editors: Wu Yao, Luo Hui, Li Ziwei, Liu Xiaorui)■
