By R. Ravichandran
KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 (NNN-Bernama) — Egypt’s New Administrative Capital and the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) projects offer various opportunities for Malaysian businessmen to explore, said Egypt’s ambassador to Malaysia Ragai Nasr.
He said the big potential for the Malaysian companies in the new capital city will be in sectors such as construction, advanced technologies, business parks, smart cities, and renewable energy.
Nasr said Egypt considers these two mega projects as among the great landmarks in the development of the Egyptian economy in modern history.
“The new capital city is not only designed to accommodate the government ministries and organisations and push them away from the crowds of Cairo, but will also represent a turning point in taking Egypt towards the digital transformation era,” he said.
The Egyptian government is training its officials and employees on the basics of digital transformation and advanced technologies that include Augmented Reality (AR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), The Internet of Things (IOT), and etc.
Nasr said this in an interview with Bernama when asked how the Malaysian private sector could explore oppotunities or participate in these projects.
As for the SCZone, Nasr explained it is a huge and promising investment destination with a total area of 461km, including four industrial zones and six sea ports, with total investments of around US$18 billion, that created around 100,000 jobs.
The main targeted sectors in the SCZone include agribusiness, pharmaceuticals, solar cells, automotive, logistics, building materials, data centres, and textiles.
“The Malaysian companies will benefit from the flexibility of the management of the SCZone who are authorised not only to provide a set of ready made incentives for potential investors but also to negotiate some more tailored incentives in specific sectors,” the ambassador explained.
He said companies investing in the SCZone enjoy exemption from custom tax and VAT (value-added tax), given that they will export their production overseas.
“The Malaysian companies will enjoy the free trade arrangements that Egypt has with the world including the EU (European Union), the Arab countries, The Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA) and African markets, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
On its website, SCZone stated that its vision is “to utilise the huge potential of the Suez Canal and the surrounding land, to develop an efficient, competitive and eco-friendly business environment, generating job opportunities, developing a global centre for maritime transport and logistic services, an industrial centre, and a gateway for trade between the East and West.”
Egypt, with a population of some 102 million, is the largest consumer market in the Middle East.
Replying to another question on the possible trade benefits for Malaysian companies following the creation of AfCFTA, Nasr invites Malaysian companies to benefit from this large Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the African continent.
“This is by developing business partnerships with their counterparts in Egypt which will open the gates of the whole African nations to the production of these companies, especially that one of the main long-term objectives of the AfCFTA is to increase the intra-continental trade in the African continent to more than 50 per cent compared to its current level of only 15 per cent,” the ambassador pointed out.
He said the AfCFTA is the second largest FTA arrangement after the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), with a total population of 1.2 billion and a total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of around US$3 trillion.
AfCFTA has membership of 54 African countries, and Eritrea is the only African country which is not a member.
On whether the Malaysian business community has enough knowledge and awareness about AfCFTA, the ambassador has this to say:
“Whether the Malaysian businesses are well informed about the AfCFTA, I would say not to the level that we wish, as companies and business associations in Malaysia are more informed about the regional FTAs in Africa such as COMESA and ECOWAS (The Economic Community of West African States ) more than the AfCFTA, probably because it is a new agreement and needs more publicity and promotion.”
The AfCFTA Secretariat, on its website, said that AfCFTA is aimed at accelerating intra-African trade and boosting Africa’s trading position in the global market by strengthening Africa’s common voice and policy space in global trade negotiations.
Among the general objectives of the AfCFTA are to create a single market for goods, services, facilitated by movement of persons in order to deepen the economic integration of the African continent and in accordance with the Pan African Vision of “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa” enshrined in Agenda 2063.
Besides that, it is aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of the economies of State Parties within the continent and the global market and promote industrial development through diversification and regional value chain development, agricultural development and food security.
To another question, on the The Pan-African Highway – the Cairo-Cape Town Road linking 10 countries including Egypt – and in what way Malaysian business community could benefit by using Egypt as a hub, Nasr said Egypt is well positioned to be a very successful hub for Malaysian businesses who are targeting the EU, the Arab nations, MENA Region (Middle East and North Africa) and the African countries.
“This is not only because of the unique geographic location that links the big three continents (Europe, Africa and Asia), but also because of the breakthrough that Egypt has achieved in terms of roads and logistics facilities,” Nasr said.
“The Cairo-Cape Town road has a length of more than 10,000 km and Egypt is pushing hard to finish this project by 2024. This road is a support to increase intra-continental trade in Africa which is the main objective of the AfCFTA,” he said.
The highway begins in Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria and passes through its capital city Cairo, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana before ending in South Africa’s Cape Town.
— NNN-BERNAMA
