Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Port of opportunity

		31 Oct. - 6 Nov. 2002 Issue No. 610 Home news	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Port of opportunity

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TO THE WHISTLES of docked vessels, President Hosni Mubarak inaugurated the first phase of the Sokhna Port and Logistic Centre on Saturday. The port offers advanced deep-sea port facilities for the handling of various cargoes, while the centre facilitates access, distribution and marketing of goods allowing foreign companies easy access to the local market. The four-phase project should be complete by the year 2020 at a cost of $1.1 billion, with some $5 billion in foreign direct investment, and projected revenues during that period of $4.6 billion as it services. The facility is expected to serve 1,000 to 1,500 companies at completion.
After inaugurating the port, the president and a large entourage of senior officials and top investors toured parts of the 9,000-hectare Suez Special Economic Zone (SSEZ). Mubarak told his company that the port "will place Egypt on the map of the new century", adding that citizens share the responsibility for "carving out the future through hard work, creativity, strengthening the economy and increasing the national income". Meanwhile, Mubarak affirmed that the government would continue to provide the infrastructure required for projects like the SSEZ. The port and centre are expected to provide some 15,000 jobs and create 85,000 indirect employment opportunities by the year 2020, while the SSEZ is estimated to create 165,000 jobs by that date.
The zone is strategically located on the coast of the Gulf of Suez, only 130km away from Cairo, and is connected to the capital by congestion- free highways, while all cargo zones will be connected to a railway network. The port provides a necessary interface for import and export cargo flows, serving the SSEZ, Red Sea and Greater Cairo area. The project is a national imperative, because, as Mubarak put it on Saturday, it is "essential that Egypt improve the quality and quantity of its exports". On this subject, he also said that the problems faced by Egyptian exports to the US, especially steel products, were resolved during his talks in Washington earlier in the year.

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