Suez Canal Economic Zone – Egypt:
Engineer Yahya Zaki, head of the Suez Canal Economic Zone, announced that work is underway to develop the ports of Sokhna, West Port Said and Arish to enhance their competitiveness and push them to be pivotal ports on the Red and Mediterranean Bahrain to serve the global trade movement. This is within the framework of the Egyptian state’s strategy for developing seaports. And in implementation of the directives of the political leadership to accelerate the pace of work to develop these ports to match their global counterparts.
Yahya Zaki said that the Economic Authority pays great attention to developing its ports, especially those close to industrial zones that facilitate the export of products from existing projects and factories to global and regional markets. As well as exporting Sinai products from El-Arish port to foreign markets, Pointing out that the port of El Arish is being developed by constructing new berths with a length of 915 meters, bringing the length of the port’s berths to 1165 meters, as well as constructing internal roads and trading yards. As the percentage of development implementation reached 57%, the development work will be completed in 2024.
The head of the economic zone also referred to the development of West Port Said port, raising the efficiency of some berths, and deepening the draft to 14 meters instead of 12 meters. In addition to the ongoing works to develop Sokhna Port at a cost of 37 billion pounds to construct 4 basins and 18 km of new berths with a draft of 18 meters and various activities to be completed in June 2023.
On the other hand, The head of the economic zone said that the authority is studying other global offers in the field of clean energy, in addition to the global projects of Maersk and Norway’s Scatec. To settle green hydrogen and green ammonia projects in Ain Sukhna and East Port Said,
This is in the context of the Egyptian state's interest in settling these industries due to the huge
potentials that the economic zone possesses that qualify it to be a leading center for ship catering
activities, marine services and clean energy. Regarding the most prominent modern projects in
the industrial zones in the economic zone, Yehia Zaki said that preparations are underway to open
the first factory for pharmaceutical industries to produce intravenous medical solutions and
sterilization products in Sokhna on an area of 20,000 square meters with investments estimated at
about one billion pounds, as the project provides more than 500 job opportunities .Directly in the first phase,
it aims to export to the African and Arab market, as well as new Chinese investments. A project is currently
being established to produce hygiene supplies and products on an area of 133 thousand square meters with an expected investment
of $36 million,
as well as a project to produce electrical appliances with investments of about $25 million.
These projects are at the end of this year, and in the industrial zone in East Port Said,
the work of a newly established factory in the manufacture of sports shoes for some international brands is witnessing,
on an area of 3,000 square meters, which contributed to providing job opportunities for the people of Port Said,
with investments of about 8.6 million pounds.
