The United Nations' FAO is offering to invest in Egypt's upcoming global logistics centre project for storing, handling and packing grains and food commodities, said Egyptian supply minister Khaled Hanafy on Tuesday. Egypt is planning to establish a global logistics centre, with investments estimated at 15 billion Egyptian pounds (US$2.1 billion). According to the Egyptian minister, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) seeks to have its own storage of food commodities in Egypt's anticipated global logistics centre. Hanafy's announcement was made during his meeting with consulting and legal experts alongside the planning minister's aide and representatives from the Arab Academy for Science Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT). The meeting tackled the mechanisms to implement the country's national project to establish the global logistics centre for grains and food commodities. Egypt plans to start the implementation of the national project next Month, where Damietta has been identified as the initial site for the logistics operations. The centre aims to transform Egypt into a hub for logistical, global storage, and will introduce global mechanisms for storing, handling and packaging grains and food commodities. The total area for the proposed project is 3.350 million square metres, of which 500.000 metres fall within the boundaries of the Damietta Port. The remaining 2.79 million square metres comprise a portion of the untapped industrial area northeast of the port. The project provides for the construction of modern silos and domes for storage in three storage areas with a capacity of 7.5m tonnes. This project will serve to quadruple the capacity of Egypt's ports from 2.5 million tonnes to 10 million tonnes. The Project will also include two 700 metre-long sea-quays to accommodate large ships in addition to a 1,200 meter long river-quay. It covers the construction of five investment and industrial zones for grains and food commodities with a total land use of 1.7m metres. Morever, the project also encompasses a complete electronic system for surveying, monitoring, and managing marine operations, freight, allocation, inspection, and customs clearance. In October, the government adopted a project to establish a global logistics centre in Damietta for the handling and storage of grain and food commodities. Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab announced it as a national project that is of no less important than the Suez Canal expansion.
