The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has announced that the first eight firms have penned partnership deals to operate the Russian industrial zone in Egypt.
The step coincides with a time when economic and commercial ties are developing between Russia and Egypt, knowing that Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Cairo in December in 2017 and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi visited Russia in October last year.
Chairman of Egypt's Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish signed a memorandum of understanding with Afanasiev Anton, General Director of Economic Zone at Dubna, to cooperate in the field of transforming and exchanging expertise between the two.
Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that the first portfolio of eight agreements of intent with interested companies would be signed by Russian Export Center in the Russian industrial zones.
Manturov added that the industrial zone is not only a promising project to develop economic and commercial ties between countries but also a multi-functional station to export Russian industrial products to MENA markets.
The Russian side expects the project of establishing an industrial zone in Egypt to take 13 years, given that the first Russian company will commence its operations in the first phase in 2019. While Russian firms that would operate there will be able to manufacture products of value worth USD3.6 billion per year starting 2026.
The Russian industrial zone is set to be established on more than a 5-million-square meter plot of land in Port Said, with the first phase to cost 190 million dollars.
