Egypt has launched a shipping line from Ain Sokhna Port to Mombasa Port in Kenya, Egypt's Minister of the Public Business Sector Hisham Tawfik said on Sunday. The line will offer a full range of transport and logistics services to global traders working with East African countries, Tawfik said during his participation in a conference on governance index in Africa that was held by the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies on Sunday. The shipping line is part of the Gosoor Project adopted by the public business sector ministry to enhance foreign trade between Egypt and Eastern and Central African states. In his address to the Rotaries African businessmen forum earlier this month, Tawfik said that the project aims, in its first phase, to provide an integrated logistics and transportation services chain for external trade and industry with East African countries through companies under the public business sector ministry, in addition to providing an insurance service for goods. "The project is expected to be entirely completed by 2020, and will be managed using international expertise in order to provide high quality service," Tawfik said at the conference on 1 October. The services that will be provided through the project, according to Tawfik, include road transport for commodities as well as assembly and customs clearance services at ports. For sea transport, the minister clarified that storage space, in collaboration with international shipping lines, will be allocated to provide a regular service at decreased shipping prices. The minister noted that a new marketing and mediation company is being established in cooperation with domestic banks and private sector investors with the aim of opening new markets outside Egypt, in addition to restructuring foreign trade companies inclusively. Source: MENA
