The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) plays a crucial role as an international logistic centre for world trade.
The state is taking care to create an integrated community based on industry, shipping and logistical services to support economic development.
According to the zone’s annual report on the achievements of 2021,the past twelve months witnessed the prioritisation and localisation of particular industries.
The report outlines the most important government decisions to encourage investment in the SCZone, resulting in improvement to the business climate in the Sokhna and Port Said zones.
The consistency between Egypt’s Vision 2030 and the SCZone helps settle certain industries and maximise the benefits from the SCZone, which encompasses six seaports on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and four industrial zones.
In 2021, the SCZone took opportunities in the regional market, especially after winning membership of the Executive Committee of the African Economic Zones Organisation.
Development and construction projects in the zone will be completed by June 2022.
The SCZone has moved steadily towards African markets. The manufacture of railway rolling stock industry proved a huge incentive for international companies to work in East Port Said industrial zone.
SCZone chairman Yahia Zaki said the most of the renovation work, especially at Ain Sokhna, will turn the zone into the largest axial port on the Red Sea to serve international trade.
In 2021, the SCZone concentrated on localising petrochemical industries in Sokhna with investments totalling $10 billion. The SCZone has also signed a LE20 billion contract to develop Sokhna.
The report includes plans for logistics centres and new foreign industrial zones outside the country’s borders for the first time.
The SCZone is a promising investment destination with a total area of 461 square kilometres, comprising four industrial zones and six seaports. It is located on the main international sea route and is an attractive platform for many industries with its comprehensive ports, logistics, and industrial areas, which enjoy world-class infrastructure and utility networks, including electric power, water desalination, water supply and wastewater treatment plants, in addition to telecommunications and natural gas.
In his speech to the international conference ‘The Suez Canal and Challenges in World Trade’, organised by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) last month as part of Expo 2020 Dubai, SCA chairman Osama Rabie said all parties involved in the shipping industry must make the best use of available resources in order to rise to the challenges of global trade.
The most prominent challenges are the coronavirus pandemic and its variants and climate change, which may reshape the map of global trade and logistics for decades to come, Rabie said.
Rabie spoke of successes scored by the authority against enormous odds, thanks to the direct support of the political leadership and the adoption of flexible pricing and marketing policies, which in 2021 attracted 4,920 new ships transiting the Suez Canal for the first time and increasing revenues to $1.1 billion, Rabie added.
The SCA has made great strides in using digital technology with the completion of two data centres, a fully digital monitoring system and the 16 navigational guidance stations along the canal.
The authority has installed a remote reception and guidance system, the first of its kind, for one of the largest cruise ships in the world without the need for an SCA pilot on board.
The authority has done everything possible to make the Suez Canal “green” and is working on the reduction of carbon emissions for transiting ships by providing incentives for shipping lines that observe environmental standards.
The Suez Canal has been an important waterway for more than 150 years, thanks to its unique location at the heart of global trade. In fact, 95 percent of the world’s cargoes pass through the Suez Canal.
