CAIRO, March 6 (Xinhua) -- The first Egyptian-Chinese fiber optic cable factory was inaugurated in northeastern Cairo Governorate on Tuesday.

Located in the industrial Badr city, the factory was managed by HitekNofal Hengtong Optix, the first Egyptian-Chinese joint venture specialized in manufacturing fiber optic cables and accessories.

Featuring the state-of-the-art technologies, the 33,000-square-meter fully-automated plant aims to meet the Egyptian market's demand for fiber optic cables in 2018, said Randa Tawfiq, HitekNofal marketing manager.

"Fiber optic cables market has obviously grown in the past few years in Egypt in light of the government and the private sector plans to improve the communication infrastructure," said Mohamed Nofal, CEO of HitekNOFAL Solutions.

International researches have estimated that the volume of the fiber optic market will grow up to 9 billion U.S. dollars by 2023, which means there will be huge opportunities for foreign investors in Egypt, Nofal said.

The project, with investment of 30 million dollars, plans to export the product to the African markets by the middle of 2019 with the increase of the factory productive capacity, Tawfiq said.

"We are planning for doubling our production in the coming two years," Tawfiq added, stressing that the main objective of the factory is to manufacture the "core," which is the most difficult part in the process of making the fiber optic that requires a highly-advanced technology.

"We noticed that, over the past few years, the multimode technology that allows simultaneous propagation of multiple modes of light, which enhances the transfer rate of audio and video applications, has dominated the global markets," said Hengtong Executive President Qian Jianlin.

"We seek to make Egypt a main hub for expanding our exports to the African market which is the fastest-growing market in the field of fiber optic at the international level," Qian said.

He added the factory, which can produce 8,000 km fiber optic cables annually, is to double its production by the end of 2018.

Meanwhile, Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Yasser al-Qady praised the importance of the factory for the North African country that is moving toward a digital society.

Egypt has been building 16 new cities, with the total size four times of the capital Cairo. The fiber optic cables will be essential for building the communication infrastructure in these cities, the minister added.

He said that the factory will be a center for exporting fiber optic cables and eventually technology and communication services to Africa and the Middle East.