CAIRO, Sept 25, 2003 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- A Chinese hi-tech exposition made debut in the Egyptian capital on Thursday in an effort to promote economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the four-day show, Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Youssef Wali said Egypt and China have enjoyed good ties, and bilateral cooperation in various fields has been progressing.

There exists broad prospect for bilateral cooperation in the high-tech area, he said.

More than 100 Chinese enterprises in the fields of telecommunications, machinery, bio-pharmaceutical participated in the exhibition, the biggest ever outside China.

According to Chinese statistics, two-way trade between China and Egypt reached 940 million US dollars last year. Among the total, China exported 71 million dollars worth of hi-tech products to Egypt.

China’s export to Egypt from January to July this year stood at more than 500 million dollars.