The Suez Canal Special Economic Zone (SCZone) has signed five contracts expected to generate around $4.5 billion in investments, the authority said in its annual report released on Monday. The first contract was signed to build a city for pharmaceutical industries on a space of 4 million square metres, with investments expected to reach €4 billion ($4.3 billion), the SCZone report added. SCZone also signed a contract with Ask-Capital alliance, for the development of 6 million square metres in the industrial zone in the Suez area, with investments worth $200 million. It has also signed a contract to develop a city for marble and granite industries on a space of one million square metres, with investments worth $10 million. Another contract was signed with ECOBAT Company for Gypsum Board, in the industrial zone in the Suez area on a space of 200,000 square metres, with expected investments worth 540 million Egyptian pounds, the report showed. SCZone also signed a contract with Raya for the development of 200,000 square metres in the industrial zone in the Suez area, with expected investments worth 200 million pounds. As for the fifth contract, SCZone said in its report that it was signed with investors for the development of industrial zone in the Suez area on a space of 1.16 million square metres, with total investments of $170 million. Earlier, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi issued in August 2015 a decree establishing a 460-square-kilometre economic zone around Suez Canal.
