A number of meetings were held between the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), the Egyptian Ministry of Trade, and the Russian economic delegation to implement an investment project worth $7bn in East Port Said which will provide about 35,000 jobs, said Abdel Kader Darwish, deputy head of SCZone.
He added there is a plan to transform the economic zone in the Suez Canal to a logistics and global trade centre that serves Africa and that attracts investment, noting that Egypt has already started the promotion of the economic zone abroad, because there is a fierce competition with other logistics centres.
Darwish added that he met with a delegation from the parliament’s Economic Committee, where he told them that the SCZone aims to eliminate bureaucracy, which plagues all other ports.
During the meeting, Darwish briefed the delegation on the divisions of the economic zone and the executive plans of the industrial zones and the East Port Said Port. They also reviewed the developments of the West Port Said and Al-Arish ports. The authority is now working on establishing six 5,000-metre-long platforms, which are scheduled to be completed in 2018.
In addition, the authority carries out replacement and renovation in the East Port Said area, of which 5 million square metres has been accomplished.
In response to a question from the parliamentary delegation about the development plan of the West Port Said Port, Darwish said this port is surrounded by residential areas and suffers from the accumulation of cars and transport vehicles, stressing that he wants to increase the area of the port by adding some adjacent areas to the port.
In regard to Al-Arish port, Darwish said the authority works on developing this port, which serves all cement factories in this region. He added that the authority will establish a fence for the port to prevent violations, in light of current security conditions.
