seminar aimed at improving the levels of trade between Egypt and China was held in Cairo late Monday.

The two-hour forum was attended by about 60 officials and representatives from both Egyptian and Chinese companies. Cao Jiachang, commercial counselor at the Chinese embassy to Egypt and Mohamed Shafeek, chairman of Egypt's General Authority for Imports and Exports Control, joined the discussion.

The forum discussed the pre-shipment inspection of Egypt's imported industrial products from China and other topics such as the improvement of trade structure between the two countries.

In February 2009, China's top quality watchdog and Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry signed a memorandum of understanding for pre-shipment inspection of Chinese industrial products exported to Egypt.

Trade and economic cooperation between China and Egypt have seen rapid development in recent years. In 2009, bilateral trade volume reached 5.86 billion U.S. dollars.