Senate Discusses Government’s Policy to Develop Commercial Maritime Transport Fleet


In its plenary session today, Sunday, March 17, 2024, the Senate, headed by Counsellor Abdel Wahab Abdel Razek, will discuss a request proposed to clarify the government’s policy regarding developing the Egyptian commercial maritime transport fleet and achieving the maximum benefit from available resources.

The general discussion request submitted by Representative Adel Lamai, a member of the Senate, stated the government’s policy on the measures taken to implement the directives of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi regarding the development of the Egyptian maritime fleet, in a way that achieves the maximum economic, commercial and investment returns, in consistence with the determinants of Egyptian national security.

The explanatory memorandum of the request indicated that the President of the Republic, more than two years ago, directed the development of Egyptian maritime transport, especially the maritime commercial fleet and the development of ports, in a way that achieves the maximum economic, investment
and commercial returns, in consistence with Egyptian national security, and in a way that contributes to the strategy of enhancing Egyptian intra-trade with regional blocs around the world, and in light of the free trade agreements linking Egypt with the blocs, in order to maximize Egypt’s geographical position.

The Senator confirmed that more than two years after these directives, the Egyptian maritime commercial fleet is still making a very modest contribution to transporting Egypt’s foreign trade, as a result of the technical obsolescence of its ships, their high average age, the limited number of ships and their modest tonnage, as the total number of ships in the Egyptian commercial fleet, according to age distribution and tonnage, is only approximately 44 ships.

The Senate, headed by Counsellor Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razek, also submitted a number of specific committee reports to the government to implement the recommendations contained therein.

Source: State Information Service Egypt