Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding on September 3 with China’s Jiangsu Changhong Intelligent Equipment to develop an engineering and industrial base for automotive and transport manufacturing. The State Information Service said the partners include the Industry Ministry, Sovereign Fund of Egypt and FIDIA Automotive Engineering Systems of Italy.

The proposed platform would focus on factory engineering and manufacturing or assembly of smart production equipment. The announcement described a cooperation framework, but disclosed no investment value, construction timetable or production capacity; it therefore does not establish that a factory is operating.