Source: Bastille Post    Published: 2025-01-11

By Bastille Post

Former Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf spoke highly of the role of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in promoting common development, expanding cooperation and increasing people-to-people connections.

In an interview with China Media Group in Guangzhou City of south China's Guangdong Province, which was released on Friday, Sharaf, who has visited China 46 times in two decades, shared his understanding of BRI.

"In Egypt particularly, we have these vast projects, we have job opportunity creation and we have a fantastic development in the administrative capital and also other cities on the Mediterranean Sea. Because I'm a university professor, friends from other universities, they say always 'we have contact with China, we have relations, we have established lab in certain areas' and things like that. I believe what makes China different is to help people, not to give them, as they say, 'don't give me the fish, give me the hook to fish the fish'. I believe China is helping people upgrading their technologies and innovation," said the former prime minister.

Sharaf highlighted the BRI's role in boosting all-around connectivity, which goes beyond infrastructure development and economic ties.

"BRI is the largest international cooperation platform. When I give lectures in the beginning, people think it's a road - it's transportation, maritime and inland transportation. But this is not the story of BRI. Belt and Road Initiative is for connectivity, hard connectivity and soft connectivity. It includes a part of it (which) is people to people connectivity. Ten years ago I feel very upset because people - they have wrong ideas about China, they don't know or at least they are ignorant about what was China. So with this people to people connectivity and cultural activities and mutual learning a lot of people started to change. Their [impression] has been changed especially, I repeat, under the misinformation and media war that guided by other countries against China. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, I believe we benefited economically, we benefited also culturally. China became a good example because it is advanced and also ready to communicate with the world, to cooperate with the world," he said.