Waleid Gamal El-Din, Chairperson of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), has participated as the keynote speaker in a roundtable discussion titled “Exploring Egypt’s Industrial and Infrastructure Advantages” after the Egyptian trade mission to the United Kingdom.
The discussion focused on Egypt’s industrial and infrastructure capabilities as presented by the delegation. During the session, Gamal El-Din emphasized that developing infrastructure has been a top priority for SCZONE since its inception, in alignment with Egypt’s economic vision. As a result, the industrial zones within the SCZONE have been prepared to accommodate a wide range of industries, targeting 21 industrial and service sectors for localization. He also highlighted the success in upgrading the ports within the zone, earning the trust of leading global operators, which has strengthened SCZONE’s position in international port rankings and allowed it to maintain high traffic levels despite regional and global challenges.
Gamal El-Din further noted that investments in infrastructure have led to an increase in capital inflows into the industrial zones and ports, reaching nearly $6bn over the past two years. This robust infrastructure has also given SCZONE a competitive edge in the green fuel sector, attracting investment for production facilities and services for refuelling ships with green fuel at the zone’s ports.
In addition to the roundtable, Gamal El-Din participated in discussions alongside Mohamed Farid, Chairperson of the Financial Regulatory Authority, and Khaled Abbas of Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD), to explain the efforts made to enhance the investment climate in Egypt. He highlighted SCZONE’s initiatives to offer a competitive business environment through financial and non-financial incentives while sharing success stories of international economic cooperation across various industrial and service sectors.
Gamal El-Din also outlined SCZONE’s ambition to become a global hub for green fuel production, with plans to allocate 30 million square meters for green fuel manufacturing facilities. He explained that SCZONE aims to centralize companies in this field into one location to streamline operations through a “shared services” model. This includes the establishment of a dedicated water station to meet the needs of green fuel production and a service corridor to transport products to the port for export, reducing production costs and contributing to lower green fuel prices.
Other participants included Khaled Abbas, Chairperson and CEO of ACUD; Sameh Shenouda, Executive Director and Head of Investment at the Africa Finance Corporation; Hadi Aqiqi, Director of Electrical Engineering and Communications at Dar Al-Handasah; and Omar Fouda, Head of Institutional Investment at El Sewedy Electric. The session was moderated by Harry Boyd-Carpenter, Executive Director for Climate Strategy at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).