Chairman of the Suez Canal Special Economic Zone (SCZone) Ahmed Darwish urged the IT companies to invest in the SCZone.

During a meeting with representatives of several local and international IT companies on Wednesday, Darwish revealed his plans to transform the SCZone into a smart industrial zone and to build the largest data center to serve the economic zone.

The SCZone is of special importance as it is not a government body so all decisions can be taken through its board, he noted.

Darwish said four million square meters were allocated to establish the first Egyptian city for electronics.

He said small and medium-sized companies as well as local and foreign investors are much welcomed to invest in the Suez Canal economic zone and to benefit from existing facilities, citing the 24-hour registration process of any investment company.

In November, Al-Sisi issued a presidential decree announcing that the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) will be an independent economic zone of a special nature, according to the law governing such zones.

The law, which was amended in June, was said to ensure the zone’s independence from the government, allowing the zone to work with a single-window system, which in turn was expected to cut a lot of red tape in all the investors’ procedures. It was to be separate from all ruling legislations of economic activity in Egypt.

The SCZone includes the development of six Egyptian ports, namely East Port Said Port, West Port Said Port, Al-Arish Port, Al-Adabeya Port, Ain Sokhna, and the recently added Al-Toor Port. Each of these six ports has its own master plan.