By Rania Imam
East Port Said canal inaugurates today
7 Banks to finance the canal infrastructure projects
Vice admiral Mohab Mamish, head of Suez Canal association, announced that the new east Port Said canal will be inaugurated today, with the attendance of the prime minister.
During the launch of the first navigating conference of Suez Canal on Monday, he said: “We are looking forward through this conference to achieve various objectives, and foster the canal’s role in serving foreign trade”.
Mamish added that the conference came in the wake of Suez Canal association policy to achieve direct and ad hoc connections with clients, as well as main workers in sectors of marine transportation and foreign trade.
He pointed out that this is aimed to enhance servicing the Egyptian and international economies.
Moreover, Major General Sherin Hassan, Former Transportation Minister’s Consultant for the Maritime Transport Sector, said that Suez Canal Axis Development project involves several promising investment opportunities divided among 6 sectors.
The first sector is infrastructure projects which includes electricity, sewage, and water desalination stations. Moreover, it will involve preparing the zone for implementating the rest of investment projects.
The second sector includes establishing container stops in the port. This comes within the framework of changing affiliation of the 6 ports to Economic Authority of Suez canal Axis. Most importantly the ones of east Port Said. It is decided that 8 container stops will be carried out between 2020-2025.
This sector also includes establishing fuel stations and maritime centres for maintenance and ships repairing along the canal. For succesful implementation, Suez Canal Authority is currently negotiating with a number of companies, Major General Sherin Hassan said.
The third sector is establishing 9 heavy industries which would help reviving trading in affiliated ports.
The fourth sector is related to logistics. It includes 22 relevant activities -like establishing storage and shipping commodities logistics centres.
The fifth is establishing housing projects along the canal’s axis which would create promising opportunities for construction and contracting companies.
Finally, telecommunications represents the sixth sector, under which internet and communication networks will be installed all over the zone.
Seven banks are set to start financing infrastructure ventures at Suez Canal just after the acceptance of the canal’s economic association.
The banks are expected to pump investments to one of the electric power stations, which is to be created in Ain Sokhna, producing 400 MW, in addition to financing its infrastructure, according to banking sources.
Meanwhile, negotiations take place between the association and these banks, which are expected to be confirmed before the next fourth fiscal year quarter ends.
Furthermore, high figure banking sources signaled that NBE and Misr bank came at the frontline of other banks planning to contribute heavily in financing Suez Canal’s infrastructure projects.
On a different note, Ahmed Darwish, head of the canal’s economic association, said earlier that 7 large banks announced their intention to set up branches in Suez Canal’s area, besides financing main infrastructure projects.
These banks include previously mentioned ones, Cairo, real estate and development, Arab-African, NBD banks, in addition to World Bank.
