Egypt needs legal reforms for Suez hub to work

The consultant on a project to develop the Suez Canal says cumbersome Egyptian government bureaucracy could hamper its chances of success.

Yehia Zaki, director of Egypt operations at global engineering firm Dar Al-Handasah, said he had urged the government to introduce bureaucratic and legal reforms.

The Suez project, announced by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in August, aims to turn the canal area into an international industrial and logistics hub. In a separate scheme, the army began digging a second canal in August to allow two-way traffic of larger ships.

“If there is a chance there, you need to provide the proper enabling environment for it. You cannot have it with the current bureaucracy or the legislation or with very poor infrastructure connections,” Zaki said.