Egypt’s Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Planning, and the National Egyptian Railway Industries Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with South Korean Hyundai Rotem on Wednesday to modernize Cairo metro and the railway industry.
The signing agreement was witnessed by Egyptian Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Saeed, South Korean Ambassador to Egypt Hong Jin-Wook and chairman of the National Authority for Tunnels Essam Wali.
Minister of Planning Hala El-Saeed explained in a statement that this step does not only represent a process of localizing the manufacturing of the railway industry in Egypt, but also the transfer of advanced technology and technical cooperation with global partners in this labor-intensive and technology-intensive industry.
El-Saeed added that the agreement includes cooperation between the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, the Suez Canal Authority and four national companies, which expresses the Egyptian state’s eagerness to engage with the private sector in the national economy.
More than 800 metro cars will be locally manufactured as a result of the agreement, along with the supply of new lines that comes as part of the modernization of the first and second Cairo metro lines.
Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir noted that under the first phase of the agreement, local components will make up 29.9 percent of metro cars in the first two years, 50 percent after four years, and then 75 percent after six years, which comes under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s directives to localize the manufacturing industry.
On Monday, Minister of Transport Kamel El-Wazir told Egypt’s House of Representatives that there are currently 153 projects being implemented to modernize the country’s railway system, with a total cost of EGP 132 billion (nearly $8.2 billion).
This comes after two train accidents in the same month alone, which injured and killed over 40 individuals in Upper Egypt governorates of Sohag and Dakahleya.
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