Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) and the Russian authorities signed on Thursday a preliminarily agreement to expand the Russian industrial zone in the SCZone.

The agreement was signed by SCZone Chairman Yehia Zaki and Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Vasiliy Osmakov in Moscow after two-days of negotiations.

The final agreement is expected to be signed before the end of the year after an anticipated visit in August by a high-level Russian delegation to tour the new sites in the SCZone, Zaki said in a statement.

The Russian zone, under the new agreement, will be extended to East Port Said and Ain Sokhna over an area of 5 million square metres, Zaki added, noting that the first phase of the project will include an extension of 1 million square metres in East Port Said and 500,000 square metres in Ain Sokhna.

Zaki said that work is scheduled to begin on the Russian Industrial Zone in Ain Sokhna by the end of this year after signing the final contract.