Hesham Tawfik, minister of public enterprise sector, inaugurated today the conference of “Bridges of Foreign Trade for the East and Central African Markets”, in the presence of the Minister of Industry and Trade, Amr Nassar, and the Chairperson of the Arab Organization for Industrialization (AOI), Abd El Aziz Seif-Eldeen. Tawfik said that the ministry plans to launch an integrated and sophisticated chain of transport and logistics services to support the foreign trade system and provide bridges to Africa to boost bilateral trade. He explained that the most important incentives provided through the ministry, is the provision of shipping services from Ain Sokhna to East Africa at prices 20% lower than the market. Tawfik presented the vision of the ministry to develop an integrated system for foreign trade, discuss ways of cooperation with the export councils, and exchange views and ideas. This is through its holding companies for maritime, land, and insurance transport in order to launch an integrated and advanced chain of transport and logistics services, resulting in supporting the foreign trade system and providing bridges to Africa to promote intra-trade. In the first phase, the countries of East and Central Africa are targeted. The supply chain includes shipping, land, freight forwarding services, local and foreign warehousing, and insurance and business development services to access foreign markets and marketing Egyptian products. The company will manage this integrated chain, as well as another brokerage and marketing company in partnership with the private sector. He also explained that that the ministry will operate a regular maritime transport line from Ain Sokhna port to East Africa starting next October. He added that the ministry plans to establish a brokerage and marketing company in partnership with the private sector, and is currently in negotiations with some private companies to have majority stake in the new company. He also said the ministry would contract with a global operator to manage trade services for three years, and would also contract with private sector investors to participate in the warehouse management to be established in Zambia and Uganda.
