EMEA News
Suez Industry Hub Could Start Construction in 2015
Egypt is seeking bids for the development of the Suez Canal area into an industrial and logistics hub, with infrastructure construction projected to start in early 2015, Reuters reports.
"We must move dynamically ... Investors must find service here at an international level because if they do not find it here they will go some place else," said Mohab Memish, head of the Suez Canal Authority.
Egypt invited 14 consortia to bid on the work, which involves a 76,000-square-kilometer area around the canal.
A consortium will be chosen for the work in the next three months and will then have six months to develop a master plan, which will be presented to the cabinet.
In November, the country will host an international conference for investors, and the plan will also be brought to the public for a national discussion before it is adopted, Memish said.
The nation has become more dependent on the canal, which brings in $5 billion per year, since 2011 as civil conflicts have kept tourists and foreign investors away.
Egyptian officials said in 2012 that an industrial centre around the canal could eventually generate an annual revenue stream of $100 billion.
