 "suez canal, ships, shipping, evergreen, container, transport")
Egypt is ready to provide India with an exclusive cluster in the industrial and logistics hub, which could act as a portal for New Delhi to reach other markets more effectively, the chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) stated, according to a report in The Economic Times.
Waleid Gamal Eldien's remarks about the SCZONE came before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day official visit to Egypt, which will begin on June 24.
During Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's New Delhi visit in January, India was offered full support to build a formidable industrial presence in the SCZONE. Egypt offers unique opportunities to Indian investors to reach out to markets such as Africa, Europe, West Asia, and Latin America, Eldien was quoted as saying by ET.
Eldien said the SCEZ is a strategic location for India to reach out to markets in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East and the zone has six ports, two of which are dedicated to Russia and one to China. Egypt is willing to offer India a dedicated hub in the SCEZ, he added.
This issue will be a top priority during PM Modi's visit to Cairo, the first by an Indian prime minister since 1997.
Eldien met with Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal to discuss ways to attract Indian investment in the SCZONE. He highlighted Egypt's unique location along the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea and said that Indian investment in the SCZONE would provide access to markets in West Asia, Africa, Europe, and beyond. Eldien also said that the SCZONE would provide a market of over 100 million people locally.
Eldien stated that Egypt has a big market for cars and pharmaceuticals. The SCZONE is designed to provide investors with world-class, value-added supply chain industrial parks, he added.
Indian energy firm ACME signed a memorandum of understanding with SCZONE to build a green hydrogen and ammonia factory in an area of 4.5 million square metres in Sokhna, with a total production volume of 2.2 million tonnes annually. The SCZONE on Wednesday said that it had signed an agreement with ACME to begin construction on the Sokhna hydrogen project in early 2024.
