CAIRO, March 25, 2018 - Transport Minister Hisham Arafat and the Minister of Petroleum, Tarek el-Mulla, yesterday laid the foundation stone of a multi-purpose terminal at Damietta Port. They also inaugurated an extension and the upgrade of the operations centre at the port. The Egyptian government is keen on maximising benefits of the maritime transport system to help boost the national economy, Minister Arafat said. He stressed that the Ministry of Transport is adopting a strategy for upgrading Egyptian ports nationwide to cope with the most up-to-date technologies. The LE1.3b-multipurpose station is set to be complete in 18 months as of date of commencing construction works, Arafat added in press statements. The project is for establishing a 630-metre-long and 17-metre-deep platform, which would raise the volume of handled cargo to 4 million tonnes annually and achieve revenues of LE160 millions annually, he said. Ministers Arafat and el-Mulla also raised the national flag on the two towing ships of "Mokhtar" and "Ibrahim", with a towing capacity of 25 tonnes each, and equipped with the latest fire fighting and navigation systems. In a related development, Minister Arafat and Minister el-Mulla laid the foundation stone of a new factory for producing methanol derivatives at Damietta port with a total cost of $50 million. They also laid the foundation stone of a $65 million-platform for the export of urea and ammonia produced by Misr Fertilizers Production Company (MOPCO).
