UAE allocates $10B to invest in Egypt

CAIRO - 9 February 2022: Mohamed Juma Al Shamisi, CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, said that the political leadership of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has allocated $10 billion to invest in Egypt.

Al Shamisi expressed his aspiration that the bulk of these investments will be in the port field, stressing that Abu Dhabi Ports has great interest in obtaining serious cooperation opportunities with the Egyptian side in this field, according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Transport, Tuesday.

This came during a meeting with the Minister of Transport, Kamel Al-Wazir, during his visit to the UAE, with the CEO of Abu Dhabi Ports, where the meeting discussed future cooperation frameworks between the two sides.

In turn, the Egyptian Minister of Transport affirmed the support of the political leadership of the two countries for joint cooperation in all fields, including the transport sector, which is witnessing a huge boom in both countries.

He explained that the Egyptian state is implementing a comprehensive plan to develop the maritime transport system and comprehensive development of all Egyptian ports to achieve the greater goal of transforming Egypt into a center for global trade and logistics, pointing out that there are promising investment opportunities for joint cooperation in all Egyptian ports.

The two sides also discussed cooperation projects in the field of river transport, and it was agreed to sign an agreement during the coming period to operate a line for transporting goods across the Nile (Minya - Alexandria - Damietta) to transport the products of the new sugar station in Minya.

They also discussed the partnership of Abu Dhabi Ports in establishing and operating the river passenger transport project in Greater Cairo, given their previous experiences in transporting passengers between islands in Abu Dhabi.

The Minister of Transport stressed that there is great interest in developing the river transport system in Egypt to support the national economy, and increase the share of transporting goods across the Nile, to relieve pressure on the road network, whose maintenance costs billions of pounds annually, in addition to reducing the cost of transportation, pointing out that it is planned to establish a number of of modern river ports.

In the same context, the Minister of Transport paid a visit to the tourist passenger terminal in Zayed Port and toured the terminal and discussed with officials the partnership between Abu Dhabi Ports and the Red Sea Ports Authority to develop Sharm El Sheikh Port to become one of the main stations for cruise ships in the Red Sea Basin.

The two sides agreed to move towards ending this agreement during the first half of the current year.