Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi affirmed Egypt’s keenness to enhance co-operation with the global alliance of companies in light of their high international standing in their field as well as their distinguished technical and administrative expertise.
The President made these remarks during his meeting on Thursday with a delegation of heads and representatives of a number of major international companies from China, France and Switzerland working in the field of managing and operating shipping lines and international container terminals, Presidency Spokesman Ahmed Fahmy said.
President said during the meeting that Egypt is keen to co-operate with this alliance as it endeavors to implement the project to establish the Sokhna-Dekheila Integrated Logistics axis for Containers, which is the largest integrated logistics corridor to serve global trade between the East and the West through linking the Red and Mediterranean Seas.
This would increase Egypt’s share in the global transit trade market and would contribute to opening new markets for Egyptian exports through operating direct maritime services in addition to creating new job opportunities for Egyptian citizens.
The presidency spokesman added that the meeting comes in the wake of the government’s agreement with an alliance that includes Hutchison Ports subsidiaries to establish, manage, operate, maintain and re-deliver two container terminals in the ports of Sokhna and Dekheila, with investments estimated at about $1.6 billion.
The two terminals will add a capacity to the Egyptian ports of up to 5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) per year, which constitutes an increase of 50% in the Egyptian ports’ container handling capacity.
During the meeting, the attendees expressed their optimism about the future of investment in Egypt, in light of the advanced thinking they perceive in managing the business climate, which would maximise the benefit from the integrated development and upgrading of the infrastructure, whether at the level of sea ports, or the advanced road and transportation network that links them.
