GVC: Egypt ranks as Africa’s 1st in regular shipping lines

CAIRO – 17 February 2020: Egypt has achieved advanced ranks in terms of the factors that can help the country enhance economic growth through Global Value Chain, cross-border production, according to a report issued by the Cabinet on Monday.

Global Value Chains involve different countries in the production process to help increase international trade and productivity.

These factors include regular shipping lines, as Egypt ranked first in Africa and the second in the Arab world in this regard, with a value of 66.7 points in 2019, compared to 62.38 points in 2018, said Osama Al-Gohary, an assistant of Egypt’s prime minister. Improvement in this index means easier access to the global shipping system and thus effective participation in international trade.

Concerning logistic performance, Egypt ranked third in Africa, and is looking forward to boosting the handling capacity of ports from 120 million tons to 370 million tons by 2030, through several procedures including developing infrastructure of a number of ports and upgrading the Port Said port, in northern Egypt, Gohary added.

The waiting time of ships is another factor that influences Egypt’s participation in the Global Value Chain. Egypt ranks 18th in this index, with an average waiting time of 34.6 hours, Gohary said, noting that Egypt is working to improve its ranking by improving the competitive capabilities of ports through digital transformation.

As the political leadership has put much effort into digital transformation, the Ministry of Finance in August last year said Egypt is moving towards digital transformation and achieving the goals of financial inclusion.

Thanks to the government's electronic payment and collection system, launched in May, government services have become more accessible to citizens at their actual prices, whether online or through payroll, bank, prepaid or credit cards, the ministry added in a statement, state’s news agency MENA reported.

The ministry has supplied all administrative bodies nationwide with E-collection systems; however, some of them have been found to be unused, the ministry said.