Chairman of General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) Ahmed Darwish told Daily News Egypt that the authority received new requests from investors to allocate lands in the Ain Sokhna area.
An investment company submitted a request to allocate 5 sqkm to the industrial development system. The company will oversee the infrastructure and buildings as well as marketing operations and in exchange SCZone will provide water and electricity facilities.
Darwish said the Ain Sokhna area is ready to receive new investments, especially in the petrochemical industries, and to establish trade centres owing to its proximity to Ain Sokhna Port.
The authority has held negotiations with one of the foreign investors to establish a petrochemical complex in the area, with investments worth about $5.3bn over five years.
He also said there has been progress regarding the arrangements of Chinese TEDA Group’s investments in the area, especially after the allocation of additional industrial areas of 1.23m sqkm in January for the company.
The most important step was the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China Development Bank, being the financing bank for TEDA.
SCZone is seeking to attract new foreign investments in hard currency to the economic zone without depending on funds from local banks due to the dollar shortage suffered by the Egyptian economy.
Darwish said the most pressing issue for the authority is to find the required financial resources to implement the infrastructure projects including power plants and water desalination in the area of eastern Port Said, especially since the soil of the area is very loose and needs special treatment.
During his meeting last week with the Egyptian Credit and Risk Association (ECRA), Darwish received financial mechanism proposals for infrastructure projects in the region, such as issuing bonds, and the authority will study the proposal.
