Unlocking economic potential: Transforming Egypt’s ports into global hubs

Egypt is working on developing its seaports, which in turn helps boost its economic growth. This comes due to Egypt’s geographical location, which has shorelines on both the Red and Mediterranean Seas. Accordingly, the country is developing its ports, establishing free zones, and creating added value to lure investments and activate the flow of importation and exportation.

Egyptian Ports Development
Egypt has a number of key ports at the Mediterranean Sea, including Alexandria, Damietta, and Port Said. It also has significant Red Sea ports, such as Ain al-Sokhna, Suez, and Nuweiba, in addition to specialized tourist and petroleum ports. This makes up 90% of Egypt’s trade volume with the world, which passes through seaports, according to a report issued by the Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies (ECSS) in June 2023.

Moreover, the Egyptian Ministry of Transport has adopted short-term and medium-term plans until 2024 and 2030, respectively. The plans aim to employ all the capabilities available as well as the comparative advantages of the ports in the Red and Mediterranean Seas and in the Suez Canal.

The plans aim at boosting the efficiency of Egyptian ports by enhancing infrastructure and developing industrial cities near these ports. Additionally, Egypt intends to increase the ports’ capacity by improving the efficiency of existing storage yards, berths, navigational channels dredging, and gates, according to Rabab Sobhy’s report entitled ‘Transforming Egypt into Global Trade Hub’, issued by the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC).