By the Gazette Editorial Board EFFORTS are in full thrust to ready the entire infrastructure for launching the Suez Canal Economic Zone which is projected to operate as a vibrant and promising hub for international logistics and multiple investments. "It is rising and promising," Suez Canal Economic Zone Chairman Admiral Mohab Mameesh said as he outlined the works now under way to set up the zone's infrastructure of energy, water, roads and related utilities. Of equal importance to the infrastructure are the measures now being set out to ensure fast customs procedures and the availability of tax and investment incentives, Adm. Mameesh noted in statements he gave to a satellite TV channel last week. The combination of concrete works to ready the infrastructure on the ground and the associated set of administrative, tax and procedural facilities will help the zone attract increasing investments. As a matter of fact, the Suez Canal Economic Zone enjoys almost unrivalled advantages for potential investors as well as for the national economy, including in the foremost the zone's location. "It is located in a genius place, between two vital seas, the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and two continents, Africa and Asia," Adm. Mameesh said, noting that some 11 per cent of the aggregate volume of world trade passes through the Suez Canal. Adm. Mameesh's statements came as the SCZone signed a protocol for co-operation with one of the world's top 10 leading companies specialised in freight forwarding, air, maritime and on-land transport, warehousing and supply chain management services. The newly-concluded instrument provides for the developing of such a world-class logistics centre that can bolster the transport and warehousing of raw materials and the trading and shipping of intermediate and final goods through the Suez Canal ports, per the company's website. Providing logistical and technological solutions to foreign investors and the creation of new job opportunities are indeed the two most advantageous characteristics of the venture. And enlisting the co-operation of a developer with this weight and global connections in the implementation of the Suez Canal Economic Zone would attract goods owners and transporters to the services that the zone can, with its distinguished location, offer. And it was obviously in recognition of these considerations that the company's CEO noted in remarks to the protocol signing ceremony that the large size of the Egyptian market, Egypt's location as a gateway to Africa and the efforts made by the Egyptian government to create an investment-friendly environment would transform the Suez Canal Economic Zone into one of the world's major logistics ventures.
