Coinciding with the occasion of celebrating the Canada Day, the Canada Egypt Business Council, CEBC, hosted a special dinner and a panel discussion entitled “Transport, Lifeblood of the Egyptian Economy, the State’s Future Plan” at The Four Seasons Hotel, Nile Plaza.
The event was featured by H.E. Alaa Fahmy, Minister of Transport, as a keynote speaker, and attributed by a number of prominent guests and speakers including Mr. Hamdy El Tahan, Chairman of the Transport Committee, The People’s Assembly, Mr. Salah Diab, CEO, Pico Group, and moderated by Mr. Saad Hagras, Managing Editor, Al Alam Al Youm Newspaper.

The discussions focused on the current state of the transport sector and the development strategies that have been embarked by the government of Egypt.

Ambassador Ferry de Kerckhove, Canada’s Ambassador to Egypt, started the event by highlighting the magnitude of the transport sector, which he views, as the main contributor for tremendous opportunities of bilateral cooperation between Canada and Egypt.

The Canadian ambassador moved on to explain Canada’s commitment to extend cooperation and trade with North Africa and the Middle East region. He added that during ‘the conference of Montreal’ or ‘the international economic forum of the Americas’, the significance of expanding trade and investment in the region was highly underscored. He stated that the conference recommendations concluded that Middle East markets including Egypt remarkably bear very promising opportunities for Canadian trade and investment following the China and India markets.
Mr. Motaz Raslan, then commenced his speech by welcoming the overwhelming guests in attendance and emphasized the transport sector’s role in growth of the nation, explicating that the sector is considered as the lifeblood of the economy and one of the basic pillars of Egypt’s economic development.

The Egyptian transport sector, he explained, is one of the most important contributors for boosting trade whether internally or externally, where the development of any country is usually linked with the quality and advancement of its transportation and infrastructure network.
The CEBC Chairman further outlined that Egypt has long been a leader and a pioneer in the inauguration of its transport sector. “Egypt’s Railway is the first railroad lines established in Africa and the Middle East and second in the world subsequent to England. In addition, Egypt also holds a large network of land transport, maritime and river, where the country possesses more than 52 thousand kilometers of highways and around 40 air and sea ports as well as a complex network of river transport. This is besides the major Suez Canal, which plays a vital role in international trade”, he asserted.

A huge potential and a historical record of achievements, however, he confessed, the Egyptian transport sector is still suffering a number of significant challenges and has not yet reached the requisite standard that we all desire for our country. Mr. Raslan finally acknowledged that hosting such an event comes from the Council’s commitment to keep its members and the business community updated with the state’s vision as well as the ministry’s plans and strategies in advancing the various segments of this vital sector.
“The Government of Egypt still has a long way to go to develop the transport sector in Egypt. In order to achieve this goal, the state should conduct a far-reaching transformation plan that would take several years to implement and would necessitate huge investments to renovate the sector and increase its capacity”, Raslan concluded.
Mr. Raslan then gave the floor to Mr. Saad Hagras, Managing Editor, Al Alam Al Youm Newspaper, who highlighted the urgency for further reform attempts to be pursued during the coming period, which he affirmed, will highly contribute in overcoming the challenges and obstacles impeding the development of the sector.

Mr. Hagras further outlined the need for establishing a Board of Trustees contributing a number of railway experts to develop a strategy for boosting the railway services in Egypt. The strategy’s main pillars, he added, should be to restructure operations to create safer, more dynamic, responsive, and competitive rail services, while continuing to provide transport services to poor people and remote areas. He also suggested developing a plan for training potential calibers that may contribute in advancing the railway domain and removing a significant part of the obstacles hindering its expansion, which is the untrained labor force.

During his speech at the event, Mr. Hamdy El Tahan, Chairman of the Transport Committee, The People’s Assembly, declared that the railway sector still faces huge problems, despite the current renovation of part of its fleet. He pointed out that railway operations became a matter of deep concern, due to several issues, in particular, acute safety issues, deteriorating quality of service, and the significant impact of the sector on the public budget.

He also added that the railway sector has been suffering from severe disregard by the state for many years despite its significance as one of the most important transportation facilities in Egypt following the Nile River. “This major sector carries 800 million passengers per year and extends for a distance of more than 9 thousand kilometers of railway bars and includes 750 tractors of more than 3 thousand passenger traffic and 12 thousand cargo vehicles operating in 908 stations in addition to employing around 71 thousand employees”, he affirmed.

Mr. El Tahan also concluded that serious endeavors should be directed towards the restructure of the sector based on policy recommendations from consultants and experts along with the state’s venture in order to achieve a renovation plan that can entail costly investments to modernize transportation network in Egypt.

In his address, Mr. Salah Diab, CEO, Pico Group, identified that the renovations in railway transport should extend to all relevant utilities and not be solely limited to trains. He suggested installing new railways in Hurghada, which would be unprecedented, and emphasized the importance of developing popular means of transport, such as micro-buses, which accounts for 65 percent of transportation in Cairo and the provinces.

Mr. Diab went on to delineate China’s experience in promoting the railway sector, pointing out that Egypt should start developing this important facility through activating the private sector’s role in railway services. He also suggested assigning the operation of railway carriages to international companies that should work on improving the quality of the service, while still subsidizing the third degree lines as an essential mode of transport for low-income Egyptians.

H.E. Eng. Alaa Fahmy then inaugurated his keynote speech with an address that conveyed the current state of the transport sector in Egypt where he declared that the railway services have witnessed many recent improvements as the number of locomotives in use has increased from 230 to 550.

Minister Fahmy then attributed the country’s plans in implementing a comprehensive development strategy in all the transport sectors and developing the financing means, where the service and infrastructure projects would be funded by the state’s budget while other the economic projects from the investment bank.

However, he added that the L.E. 8 billion earned by the government from a mobile operator license recently granted to the UAE-based Etisalat is not enough to improve the transport sector, and stressed the need for larger investments through the public private partnerships and investments. H.E. Minister Fahmy called for private sector participation in joint ventures with the government, where further improvements in infrastructure are needed.

In addition, the minister signified the importance of the newly approved law on partnership between the government and the private sector in infrastructure projects, which he affirmed, would enable to contribute more funds that may assist the sector witness a remarkable increase in investments in the coming period.

The minister also explained that a joint plan with the Ministry of Trade and Industry would aim to establish a number of inland ports in the industrial zones of 6 October, 10 Ramadan, Tanta, and Dakahlia, which he explained would be areas for gathering goods that will then be transported to seaports.

Finally, Minister Fahmy announced that a broad international conference would be held after the holy month of Ramadan in order to promote investment opportunities in the maritime transport sector in Egypt in the ports of Damietta, Port Said, El Sokhna, Alexandria, and various ports in the Red Sea. He also explained that there are significant opportunities in this sector, especially after the operation of a shipping line with Italy and the interest of five other countries to establish similar lines.
In the question and answer session that followed, Eng. Alaa Fahmy responded to questions posted by the audience regarding the government’s economic development, the public private partnership upcoming projects in the transport sector, the impact of developing labor skills on the quality of the railway services, the improvement of maritime and river transportation.