CAIRO, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's State Information Service (SIS), the country's official body that regulates foreign media and oversees their accreditation, announced on Wednesday launching a website on Africa in Chinese.
The SIS said in a statement that it launched the website on Africa in Chinese because "the past years witnessed increasing mutual interest between China and Africa, while Chinese investments multiplied in several African states in all fields."
Egypt is the current president of the African Union (AU) and its strategic location makes it a gate to Africa and the Arab world.
"Africa suffered lack of new and direct means of media communication and so far none of the African states or the AU institutions sought to launch a tool in Chinese to address the Chinese people," the SIS statement added.
It pointed out that the website will provide a base of information on the AU and its bodies as well as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
It will also have information on African states and review the most important African and Chinese news, articles and papers, according to the SIS.
"This website is a window on Africa for the Chinese people," said the statement, noting that it will also provide information on Egypt, its policies, positions, daily news, as well as its cultural and economic activities.
The current SIS official website already has Chinese among its languages that include Arabic, English, French and Spanish.
According to data from the Chinese embassy in Cairo, China's exports to African states increased by 10.8 percent in 2018 to reach 104.91 billion U.S. dollars while its imports from them rose by 30.8 percent to hit 99.28 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, trade exchange between China and Egypt hit a record high of 13.87 billion dollars in 2018, with an increase of Egyptian exports to China to reach 1.8 billion dollars for the first time.
Many Chinese giant corporations are currently working on mega infrastructure projects in Africa to boost development in African states via win-win partnerships.
