Egypt’s president urges that SCZone projects focus on investments to localize technology

CAIRO – 6 May 2021: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi directed that the projects strategy in the Suez Canal Economic Zone focus on investments that aim at localizing technology and possessing industrial capacity.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and SCZone Chairman Mohamed Yehia Zaki, Sisi urged focusing on investments that also create job opportunities, the Presidency said.

Sisi also urged maximizing the projects related to the ports system and marine services, in integration with the nationwide comprehensive development process.

This aims to raise the classification of Egyptian sea ports on the international map of navigation and marine services, the statement read.

Also, in a meeting with Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabei, Sisi ordered continuing the development of all the facilities related to the SCZone and the waterway’s navigation course, to reinforce its unique strategic status as an international trade lifeline.

The meeting touched on the outcomes of the investigations into the incident of grounding the Ever Given containership in the Suez Canal.

Sisi praised the Suez Canal Authority’s management of the crisis of the grounded vessel and the success of its efforts to refloat it after its blocked navigation in the canal for almost a week.

The Panama-flagged Ever Given was on its way to the Dutch port of Rotterdam on March 23 when it slammed into the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal, about 6 kilometers north of the southern entrance and disrupted navigation in the waterway for nearly a week.

MENA contributed to the reporting.