Egypt has opened its ports to American investors, courting Washington in a bid to become the region’s next manufacturing powerhouse.
Transport Minister Kamel El-Wazir pitched the opportunities to a visiting US official, offering terminal management and joint industrial zones.
The talks with Deputy Assistant Secretary Mark Mitchell unfolded on the sidelines of a US-Egypt maritime forum in Cairo.
Acting US Ambassador Robert Silverman and senior Egyptian transport officials also joined the discussions, underscoring the deal’s diplomatic weight.
El-Wazir laid out a menu of assets on the table, from Alexandria’s El-Max container terminal to Damietta’s cargo docks.
He also floated a shipbuilding yard in Damietta and control of the iron ore terminal at Adabiya Port.
Logistics zones at Salloum Port and Sadat Industrial City rounded out the minister’s pitch to American firms.
Under the proposed arrangement, factories would rise in the terminals’ hinterlands, turning imported raw materials into finished goods.
Egyptian-made products would then flow to American shelves, while US materials fed local production lines.
El-Wazir singled out Gargoub Port as a jewel in the offering, prized for its reach across Asian and American trade routes.
Electric rail cooperation and international transport corridors featured as additional threads in the widening partnership.
Egypt’s ambitions extend beyond trade figures, the minister suggested, toward becoming a linchpin of regional logistics.
Mitchell responded warmly, calling the projects a boost for both economies and a sign of deepening ties.
He praised the transport sector’s progress and confirmed Washington’s appetite for public and private partnerships alike.
American companies will now begin matching priorities with Egyptian counterparts, Mitchell said, in the months ahead.
The forum capped a day of dealmaking, one more step in a slow-building alliance between Cairo and Washington.