During the Business Forum of Korea, which was held this week in Cairo, Egypt's Minister of Industry and Trade, Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, said that Egypt has highly competitive advantages for the production of fruit and vegetables, as well as other industries, such as textiles and garments, furniture and engineering, fertilisers, chemicals and petrochemical, pointing to the need to double the value of Egyptian exports in the coming 7 years.
Abdel-Nour called Korean companies to participate in the national mega projects of private development in the Suez Canal, which includes drilling a new parallel channel to minimise the time of passing from 18 to less than 11 hours, doubling the capacity of the canal to allow the passage of 97 ships per day. He pointed out that the program includes also the establishment of a logistics centre and an industrial and commercial hub and the development of 6 ports.
The Minister of Industry and Trade said that the project is currently being put into motion by a group of companies led by engineering company Dar Engineering, which was chosen after fierce competition with 14 global company in a tender supervised by the World Bank.
He explained that the program also includes the development of the region between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea, pointing out that this area is rich in mineral resources such as phosphate, gold and quartz. There are plans to create 3,000 kilometres of roads and set up plants for renewable energy, among other projects.
He added that the government was reviewing the laws and regulations governing economic activities to create an attractive investment environment and reduce bureaucracy.
