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China-Africa Trade Information Service
http://info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
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The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) has committed $3 billion to infrastructure development over the past few years, with plans to invest an equal amount in the coming years, as it works to boost its appeal to private investors.
SCZone Chairman Walid Gamal El-Din revealed these plans in a recent interview, emphasizing that the expansion of infrastructure is key to supporting the increasing number of projects and companies within the zone.
“Now we realize that we need to invest more in infrastructure to serve future projects beyond the 160,” Gamal El-Din said, referring to the more than 160 projects attracted by SCZone in the past two years. “Before these 160 projects, we had something in the tune of 300 companies. So effectively, in two years, we increased by almost 50 percent.”
Addressing current geopolitical tensions, the chairman explained that the political instability in the region has emphasized the advantage of diversification and hedging.
“We have been able to attract more than $6.3 billion worth of investments in various sectors and logistics and ports, and 164 projects, seven of which were in our ports, and the remainder factories and logistics sites within the zone.”
He added that he expects these numbers to grow substantially in the near future. “We're looking for something much higher than this,” Gamal El-Din remarked, noting that SCZone had already attracted nearly $1 billion in investments within the first four months of the current fiscal year, which began in July.
One of the key areas of focus for the SCZone is the development of new port and logistics infrastructure, with significant developments such as the East Port Said container port, which is poised to expand with the imminent launch of a general cargo terminal.
A roll-on, roll-off car terminal is expected to be operational by January, and a new container terminal is set to open by April.
East Port Said’s existing 2.4km (1.5 miles) of container berths have been operational for several years, but SCZone is now in talks to extend this by an additional 1 km. “We're in discussions with operators to contract for an additional 1 km,” Gamal El-Din said.
