Dubai port operator DP World has agreed with Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) on the allocation of an industrial land plot of land in the canal area In a press conference celebrating the company's ten years of operations in Egypt, DP World's Middle East & Africa CEO and Managing Director Suhail Al Banna said that a main development company will be built in the area, 51 percent of which will be owned by the zone and 49 percent by DP. He said the agreement has been referred to technical experts for a financial assessment of the area in terms of infrastructure and the best engineering implementation methods. Technical studies are expected to be finalised before the end of the year, he said. He added that Egypt's industry and trade activities have encouraged DP to invest in the country and to contribute to its economic growth. Egypt has been pushing forward with efforts to lure investors to its SCZone in recent years, highlighting the available opportunities for foreign corporations. Earlier this year, Egypt and Russia agreed to establish a company to operate and administer an anticipated $7 billion Russian industrial zone east of Port Said. The Russian industrial zone is set to be established over three phases on a 5.25 million square-metre plot of land, with the first phase to cost $190 million. DP World also said it will finalise an expansion project at the Red Sea port of Ain Sokhna, with investments of $520 million by the second quarter of 2020, Reuters reported. Forty percent of the investments to establish the second terminal at the port are bank-financed, while the rest is self-financed. The second terminal should double the port's capacity to 1.75 million containers annually, from a current 970,000. The expansion would make Sokhna the only port in Egypt able to handle the world's biggest container ships. The port received 655,000 containers in 2018, with DP's Al Banna forecasting a 7 percent increase in 2019, and a 10 percent rise in 2020. Total investments by the ports operator would total $1.6 billion following the expansion plan, he said. Source: Ahram Online
