APL: Press Releases - Freight infrastructure is key to Egypt’s economic growth prospects, according to new research
Egypt has vast untapped potential to produce, handle and transport goods domestically, regionally and internationally.
Egypt has many natural attributes and a Government commitment to harnessing growth opportunities. By ensuring its freight capacity and capabilities keep pace with demand, it can take its place among the world’s elite trading nations.
According to Frost & Sullivan estimates, Egypt’s logistics costs are around 20 percent of GDP, compared with the average of 10-12 percent for developed economies.
help attract FDI and make Egypt an even more attractive manufacturing location, as well as an international hub for shipping and logistics.
feasibly lead to Egypt capturing one or two additional percentage points of GDP growth,
Egypt Government’s recognition of the importance of private and/or foreign investment in infrastructure
Ministry of Transport established a unit to identify and implement transportation infrastructure projects – primarily in the passenger segment – based on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
major opportunities will be derived from the extension of PPP to the freight sector. This is believed to be a Government priority.
Build Operate Transfer (BOT) and Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT), which have been successfully introduced in the ports sector. “Connecting Egypt” suggests the port sector development model could be successfully adapted to other critical modes such as road, rail and inland waterways.
<i>Inland Transportation</i><br>
The report states that Egypt’s inland infrastructure is the weakest link in the country’s freight transportation network and perhaps has the most to gain from concerted investment and development.
examine the potential advantages of freight transportation by rail over road in terms of reliability, safety and profitability.
Rail usage for freight is much lower than in developed markets such as the US and Europe and also developing countries such as China and India.
operation of specific freight corridors and services could be privatised with the Government retaining overall ownership and receiving sizeable new revenues.
APL launched a coordinated container rail freight service between Sokhna and Alexandria in 2009 in partnership with ENR.
