by Marwa Yahya
CAIRO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's strategic Suze Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) is poised to see more success as more foreign investment pours in, experts said.
"The industrial and specialized investment parks are one of the mechanisms for luring foreign investment, especially in the industrial field, an essential factor for improving the competitiveness in Egypt," said Waleed Gaballah, professor of financial and economic jurisdictions at Cairo University.
Allocating industrial parks for certain countries will encourage them to pump investment and create win-win integrated industrial societies, Gaballah, a member of the Egyptian Association for Political Economy, told Xinhua.
He said that Egypt will use foreign investment to create jobs, increase domestic production, and meet its markets' demands.
Recently, Egypt's SCZone and the Russian authorities signed a preliminary agreement to expand the Russian industrial park in the zone.
Under the new agreement, the Russian park will be extended, and the first phase of the project will cover an area of 1 million square meters in East Port Said and 500,000 square meters in Ain Sokhna.
The deal with Russia came after SCZone signed on June 20 a framework agreement with a Polish partner to establish a Polish industrial park in Ain Sokhna.
The two deals will bring more to the SCZone, where the Chinese industrial zone TEDA in Ain Sokhna has already yielded fruitful results and is "a model to learn from," said Gaballah.
Presence in Egypt will also benefit the foreign partners because Egypt is a market of 100 million consumers and a gate for Africa, the professor said.
Also, moving the production process into the SCZone will lower the wages, logistics costs for reaching the consumers and enjoy many other incentives that Egypt could present for investors based on its investment law, he added.
He stressed that the success of the projects will encourage other economies to invest in the SCZone, which will push the development of the area swiftly, noting that the progress of the Chinese industrial zone in Ain Sokhna has encouraged more cooperation between Egypt and China.
Rashad Abdo, an economics professor at Cairo University and head of the Egyptian Forum for Economic and Strategic Studies, also said that building partnerships with other countries by establishing industrial parks has produced positive results.
The partnerships will attract companies to work and invest in the industrial zones. At the same time, Egypt will provide the logistics and infrastructure considered the best in Africa, said Abdo.
Abdo said the SCZone is the most important project to develop the Egyptian economy, noting that Egypt aims to attract more than 250 industrial parks in the SCZone.
Meanwhile, Kareem al-Omda, a professor of the economy with the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, said that Egypt's desire to establish more industrial parks was to increase foreign direct investment.
Egypt hopes to attract friendly countries to invest in the industry field, which is the most important sector that will bring added value to the Egyptian economy, increase the GDP, provide job opportunities and open new export markets, said Omada.
The expert said the SCZone is a world-class economic zone because of its strategic location, logistic facilities and legislative benefits.
Some countries have faced the saturation of industrial capacity inside their territories. But by moving to other countries like Egypt, the chances for benefits rise, as Egypt has signed a large number of free trade agreements, which can lower the trading cost.
However, Omada also urged the Egyptian authority to pay more attention to anti-pollution measures and infrastructure maintenance.
Heavy vehicles coming in and out of the SCZone have put more pressure on the roads inside the economic zone and nearby highways. So it is essential to maintain the infrastructure periodically, he added. Enditem
