Egypt will announce on Tuesday a tender for a project to establish a dry port and a logistics centre in 10 Ramadan city over 250 acres, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait said on Monday.

This will be Egypt's second inland port.

The tender will be held in collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation, Maait said, adding that it is based on a presidential directive to maximise the private sector's participation in Egypt’s development projects.

The tender will be managed by the public-private partnership (PPP) unit of the finance ministry.

The project is expected to follow the PPP model, through which asset ownership will be restored to the Egyptian Authority for Land and Dry Ports beyond the project's duration, explained Maait.

“Establishing dry ports is one of the critical instruments that spur the investment climate and improve Egypt’s ranking in the international doing-business indexes. Dry ports also reduce the commodities custom clearance time, eliminate containers congestion, and will lead to the reduction in the prices of commodities and services in the domestic market,” he added.

The private sector is the key driver of the country’s economic growth through financing the infrastructure and public utility projects that create millions of job opportunities and raise the consumption growth rates, Maait said.

Minister of Transportation Kamel El-Wazir said Egypt's success in establishing its first dry port in 6 October city encouraged the ministry forward to offer nine projects in the fields of dry ports, sea ports, logistics centres, and port pavements with the technical assistance of the finance ministry.

The proposals of the nine projects were submitted to the PPP higher committee of Egypt’s cabinet that approved to offer them, according to El-Wazir.

He said that the first phase of the 6 October city’s dry port is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.

In 2020, El-Sewedy Electric, 3A International and DB Schenker won the bid to operate the $176 million hub in 6 October city, the biggest facility of its kind in Africa.

The hub is scheduled to start operating in 2022 and to handle 720 containers per day.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) financed the project’s studies and the development of the tender of the project’s documents and process.