Transport

Egypt has long served as one of the world’s oldest transport hubs. For millennia, its position, straddling major trade routes between Asia, Africa and Europe, has made the country a commercial and cultural crossroads, and since 1879 it has been home to the Suez Canal, through which 10% of the world’s total trade volume passes. Thanks largely to the canal, the transport sector has helped to buffer the country from worst-case scenarios amidst recent political upheaval. However, investment was down in early 2013 at $647m, 35% lower than the same period of 2012. While the transport sector in Egypt continues to suffer from the cumulative effects of years of underinvestment, there is a new awareness of its importance to the rest of the economy and a keenness to incorporate more private investment to the sector’s development. This chapter contains an interview with Simon Brown, Managing Director, Maersk Line Egypt.