Mohammed Ali
Amid the Egyptian-Russian cooperation that has developed recently, some informed sources revealed that a visit by a delegation from the Russian Ministry of Industry to Cairo is planned to take place next January, in order to hold talks with officials from the “Industrial Development Authority’’ (IDA) and the “Suez Canal Authority’’ about establishing a Russian industrial zone east of the New Suez Canal.
Sources have also mentioned that the agreement between both countries will be signed by mid- February.
There was an initial agreement between Egypt and Russia to implement an industrial zone east of the New Suez Canal, after President El-Sisi inaugurated the New Suez Canal project last august.
Mikhail Orlov, Chairman of the Egyptian-Russian Business Council (ERBC), has affirmed lately that a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed, and a road map for the Russian industrial zone will be set during the meeting of the joint governmental commission that will be held this December; which marks the beginning of the first implementation phase. The first phase is due to last for a year, except that it was delayed because of the Russian plane crash in Sinai.
It is said that the to-be-implemented Russian industrial zone will include food, engineering, car production, equipment, machine, ships and trailers industries in accordance with the industrial developer system; according to a statement by Ismail Jaber, Chairman of the IDA.
Also, sources pointed out that the Russian delegation will hold talks and consultations about the incentives, encouragements, reductions and investment opportunities; adding that in case the Russian delegation asked to visit the Russian industrial zone, the matter will be discussed and there are no oppositions against such thing.
On his part, Dr.Ramadan Taman, a member of the ERBC, said that this agreement puts Egypt back in a leading role, asserting that it is of a top priority for Egypt and all of Africa; especially that this industrial zone targets establishing plants, investments, and companies on a two-million-square- meter area.
Taman added that the agreement includes establishing other zones in El Alamein and Borg El-Arab, asserting that the targeted interest of establishing these zones is to extend the period of investment from 3 to 5 years. He also assured that it has been observed that projects in such zones will be funded with more than $350bn, with Arab, Gulf and Egyptian participation; adding that the most important part is that these projects will be established on state-owned lands.
He confirmed as well that the services of this Russian-Egyptian project will cover 626 million people i.e., the total population of the Arab and African states where the size of the business exceeds 1.2 trillion dollars.
