Sisi establishes economic zone around Egypt’s Suez Canal

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi issued a decree establishing an economic zone for Egypt’s Suez Canal, the country’s state news agency said on Tuesday.

Egypt inaugurated a major extension of the Suez Canal last week which President Sisi hopes will power an economic turnaround in the Arab world’s most populous country.

The decree establishes a 460-square-kilometer economic zone around the canal the government says will be used to develop an international industrial and logistics hub that will attract foreign investment.

Egypt expects the economic zone to eventually make up about a third of the country’s economy, the investment minister said in March.