CAIRO, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Egypt has become the world's third largest producer of fiberglass next to the United States and China due to the investment of China's giant fiberglass corporation Jushi in the North African country, said the Egyptian minister of trade and industry on Tuesday.

"Egypt annually produces about 200,000 tons of fiberglass and specifies 99 percent of them for export," Egypt's Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil said in a statement.

Kabil made his remarks after a meeting with CEO of Jushi Egypt Zhang Wenchao, where they discussed Jushi's current and future investments in the Egyptian fiberglass market.

Jushi is one of the tenant companies of China's TEDA corporation, one of the oldest and largest industrial developers of the Suez Canal Economic Zone in Ain Sokhna district that is working on the development of an area that increased to 7.23 square km.

"Jushi Egypt is built on an area of 146,000 square meters with investments worth 520 million U.S. dollars, providing 2,000 direct job opportunities," said the Egyptian trade and industry minister.

Kabil noted that Jushi Egypt started carrying out the fourth production phase of its factory in Ain Sokhna for local grinding of raw material and manufacturing of packaging material with 60-million-dollar investment.

Egypt-China bilateral ties have been elevated to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership with growing economic cooperation between the two countries in the light of China's Belt and Road Initiative launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.