Egypt was among the first nations in the world to apply the knowledge and means of transport where it was famous since old ages by ship building industry and paving roads. Egypt's railways are considered one of the oldest tracks in the world since the inauguration of the first railway between Cairo and Alexandria in 1853. It was also among the first countries that paid attention to air transport where the first airline company was established in May 1932. Allah grants Egypt a unique geographical location that makes it one of the main international trade passages between the east and west across the Suez Canal that is considered the most important navigational channel in the world.

 

Transport sector today is one of the most important arteries in the socio-economic development in Egypt, through which developmental requirements are transported from Production in activating the state's strategy in order to get out from the narrow valley, increase the horizontal expansion and create new urban, tourist and cultural communities.

 

Egypt's plays a main role in the passenger and cargo transport across Egypt, therefore, the state has been keen to link all main ports to Egypt's railway network.

Egypt has 28 rail lines running over a length of about 9435 km in 2005/06 through 760 passenger stations and operate 1800 trains on round trips at a length of 135 km, these led to the rise of the railways, participation in transporting passengers to reach about 54400 million passengers/km in 2005/06 43,000 million tons/km in 2005/06.

 

Due to the advancement in transport technology, Egypt's railway network witnesses a continuous update where the rate of electrified lines increased to 15 percent against the last year. The total new rail lines which were established reached 1850 km at a cost of LE 4500 million. 268 stations were also established and distributed over upper and lower Egypt governorates, 8 stations were upgraded and the number of bridges and tunnels were increased to reach about 885.

 

Egypt is the first country in Africa and the Middle East to implement the underground metro with investment cost amounting to LE 12 billion. It is considered one of the most significant civilized projects which links three governorates(Cairo-Giza-Qalyoubia).The metro transports 3 million passengers/day and its lines extend to a length of 64.6 km through two main lines:

 

- The first line: Helwan – Al-Marg with length of 43 km.

- The second line: Shubra al-Khaima –al-Munib with a length of 21.6 km.

In light of the importance of the underground metro and the necessity of continuing the implementation of its projects, the first phase for establishing the third line for the metro is implemented at a length of 4.3 km and a total cost of LE 3.6 billion.

 

The development and expansion of bridges is one of the most significant projects supported by the state so as to bring about traffic flow and link different roads and governorates. The number of bridges in Egypt reaches 181 where 26 were built over the Nile and 85 flyovers. The most significant inaugurated bridges are:

 

It is the longest bridge across the Nile, linking the international coastal road from the east towards the Canal and Sinai governorates and from the west towards Delta governorates.

 

Lies on the population area border of Sohag City, it brings about traffic flow between the two sections of the city and opens a new path for the movement of vehicles.

 

It is the first flyover car bridge across Suez Canal, north of Al-Qantara Sharq. It links Africa to Asia and provides non-stop transport service for about 28,000 cars throughout the day.

 

An architecture masterpiece in its design. It lies across the Nile with a length of 980 m at a cost of LE 105 million. Due to it's active role in linking Aswan governorate to giant projects in toshka and New Valley, Aswan Bridge won the first prize of the international competition for infrastructure project in Mexico in 2005.

 

It is a railway swing bridge across the Suez Canal, linking Africa to Asia. It also holds Al-Qantara, Rafah/Al-Areesh with a length of 225 km.

 

It lies in Alexandria across the international coastal road. It has a unique design of a square that contributes to bringing about traffic flow.

 

With a length of 600m, width of 18.5m and design weight of 90 tons. It has been established to cancel the surface crossroad at Aga's entrance along aga/samanod road with Banja/ Al- Mansoura high way road.

 

Al-Azhar vehicular tunnels were opened in October 2001 with a length of 2.6 km, costing LE 890 million. Actual traffic movement in both tunnels reaches about 15 million cars/year.

* Egypt's Paved Roads .. Main Arteries for Development

Egypt has a new and paved roads network .. the main arteries for development. Through which the national economy flows and the wheel of agricultural and industrial development spread in all governorates.

 

Egypt witnessed a great interest in supporting and developing the highway and main roads networks to cover all the country as their length increased to 48,1 thousand km. Thus number of passengers increased to 135,270 million passengers/km during 2005/06, also cargo transport rose to about 44,940 million tons/km. The Egyptian roads networks during 2005/06 were supported by many projects such as:

* Al-Qantara Sharq/Rafah road.

* Implementing the second phase of Aswan/Berness road.

* Completing New Cairo/Aswan road.

* Finishing the duality of Ismailia road.

Moreover, establishing some ring roads and switches out of the dwelling mass to secure traffic safety, salient of which are the ring roads around Al-Fayyoum, Beni Sweif and Assiut and establishing some free roads such as Dafra/Kafr Al Zayat with a length of 28 km. Besides other important projects, salient of which are:

 

It is the first of its kind in investment roads networks according to international standards. It is the nucleus of freeway networks that link the Red Sea, Mediterranean and Upper Egypt.

 

Due to the traffic density on the agricultural road extending from Cairo to Aswan, the new desert road was established parallel to this road to bring about traffic flow on the old road.

 

It lies at Al-Torguman square on an area of 52,000 m², it was open in 2005 aiming to serve passengers from and towards all governorates and neighboring Arab countries.

 

It lies at Al-Torguman Square on an area of 52,000 m² and was open in 2005. The second was actually operated in October 2006. Its current capacity reached 400 bus trips throughout 24 hours where it transfers about 1000 passengers aiming to serve passengers from and to all governorates and neighbouring Arab countries.

 

The state gives due attention to developing and promoting the efficiency of river transport due to its effective role in the tourism-attraction operation and alleviating the burden on the Egyptian roads network by developing the navigational courses and making it valid for river navigation throughout the 24 hours. The length of river transport network increased to 35,000 km through which 2590 million tons/km were transported in 2005/06. The most remarkable projects of river transport are as follows:

 

1- Establishing East Aswan Port behind the High-Dam as a way to activate integration between Egypt and Sudan.

2- Dredging the River Nile waterway in order to make it a secure passage for tourism and transport throughout the 24 hours.

3- Developing ar-Rayyah al-Bahari/an Nubarriya Canal with a cost of LE 8 million.

4- Establishing the new Delta Lock with a cost of LE 80 million and new Zefta Lock with a cost of LE 100 million.

5- Upgrading Cairo-Aswan waterway at a length of 960 km and eliminating navigation bottlenecks and problem.

 

Egyptian seaports are considered its window on the outside world and the vital artery which feeds all national economic sectors and affects foreign trade in all production sectors. Egypt has 40 seaports on the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and al-Aqaba Gulf. Within the framework of the continuous development witnessed by maritime transport, the seaports capacity increased to 66.8 million tons in 2005/06 and the number of quays rose to 175 which contributed to increasing the number of passengers to the Egyptian seaports to 740,000 in the same year.

 

Also the number of the Egyptian fleet units rose to 135 ships' with a total tonnage of 2 million tons. Thus, the cargo movement increased to 10,916,000 tons in the same year.

 

1- Developing Alexandria port: So as to develop the port and its infrastructure to occupy its international status on the Mediterranean Sea. The first stage of development works has been completed at a cost of LE 300 million, along with establishing a new pivot to link the port to the bridge over the road of Burg el- Arab Airport and the international coastal road in Alexandria- As- saloum at a length of 32 km and a cost of LE 950 million, including 9 side bridges and industrial work. In addition to establishing systems for electronic management and VTMS to watch the port.

 

2 - Inauguration of Damietta New Harbour:

It is linked by both the River Nile and railways besides the international coastal road which borders the harbour from east and west.

3- An Electronic System to Provide Security for the Transiting Ships in Suez Gulf:

4- Dekheila and al-Arish harbors were erected, besides completing phase I of East Port Said and Ain –as-Sokhna harbours.

5- Developing Sharm- Al-Shiekh Port: The port witnessed a comprehensive development movement by establishing a deep and graded quay and another one for yachts with total cost of LE 40 million.

6- Developing Hurgada Port: Due to the increase of passengers at the port, acomprehensive civilized vision was set up to develop the port.

In light of the new conditions that occurred on seaports concerning activating the maritime safety standards for passengers and ferries, Egypt lays down a new and comprehensive vision to secure passengers and ships during the next period through standards and measures for security entitled “A Secure Sailing for Passengers and Ships”. Such standards and measures depend on establishing I.S.M system to control ships movement within the territorial water. In this context, the operation rooms and the crisis administrations in the seaports were provided by new appliances concerning supervision and monitoring the sailing ships throughout the 24 hours.

 

Egypt has the first airline in the Arab region and the Middle East and became the main station for air transport between the east and the west in the last years. Egyptian airlines reach 72 cities and capitals around the world, in addition to 12 Egyptian cities through 30 airports.

The air transport sector gains special attention that contributed to increasing the number of air crafts to 47 in 2005/06 and increasing air traffic in Cairo Airport to 108,000 flights and 76,000 in remaining airports. In addition, passenger transport movement in Cairo International Airport increased to 11.2 million in 2005/06 and to 10.5 million in remaining airports. Air cargo transport movement rose to 311.4 million ton/km in the same year.

 

Within the framework of tourist promotion by air transport, 2005 witnessed the following developments:

 

It is the area's most honored- time airport and Egypt's civilizational gate. Its development and modernization plan aims at scoring the aspired for- increase in the growing tourist movement.

 

1-Its departure halls were developed to raise their capacity of accommodation. They were provided with the most up-to-date technology system to offer the best service to passengers in line with the international standards as follows:

- Departure Hall No.1 was renewed. Its facade was designed on the shape of a panorama before the runway and airplanes park.

- The third terminal at a cost of LE 2.1 billion was set up to accommodate about 11 million passengers. The building was provided with the state-of-the-art technologies.

In compliance with investment services, departure hall No.4 was established for those who want speedy and high-class service. The hall was dedicated to private airplanes against fees where all services similar to those in the other halls are available. The departure and arrival halls were set up on 4500 square meters to accommodate 180 passengers/hour. The hall was provided with means of communication, internet service and displaying screens.

2- A new runway and control tower at a cost of LE 480 million and financed by the National Bank of Egypt are under construction at Cairo Airport.

 

Luxor airport is one of Egypt's best airports and match Luxor's historical and civilized status. Its area was expanded to accommodate about 4000 passengers/hour and 33 plains. A new terminal and tarmac at a total cost of LE 450 million was established.

 

In February 2005, Sharm El Shikh International Airport opened after the renovation works as it was expanded to accommodate 1800 passenger/hour at a cost of LE 415 million. A new terminal is under construction with an accommodating capacity of 4000 passengers/hour.

 

Hurghada airport's terminal is currently expanded and renovated at a cost of LE 47 million.

A new terminal at Borg al-Arab Airport is under construction to accommodate 10000 passenger/hour at a cost of LE 438 million. Moreover, a tarmac and goods storehouse at a capacity of 5 tones is being built. 

 

A new system in the field of investment that enables the investor and the private sector in general, according to the agreement made between them and the state, to establish an airport by his own expense and administer it for a specific time as a usufruct which allows him to regain its cost, conditional that the airport would return to the state after completing the period of contract. Whereas the operating requirements, technical supervision and subsidies were observed through the Holding Company for Airports and Navigation under the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Some Egyptian airports that work under this system are as follows:

 

The foundation stone was laid in 1999. It is implemented on three phases, the first was completed in 2002 where the airport was opened for operation, the second will be completed in 2013 and the third in 2026. The initial cost was estimated by LE 120 million and the contract period reaches 40 years.

 

It was opened for active operation in October 2005 where the cabinet's approval was issued on August 16, 1998 to grant Kato Company for Investment the implementation of the Alamein Airport operation and establishment project according to B.O.T. system. The contract period reaches 40 years.

It is worth mentioning that both Bahareya Oasis and el-Farafra Airport are under construction according to this system. Besides Sohag and Ras Sidr Airports that are being introduced to the private sector investors at the present time to work according to the B.O.T system.

 

It links between the East and the West and plays a vital national and international role in boosting world trade since its official inauguration for navigation on November 17, 1869, where it absorbs 8 percent of world trade transiting through it. It is the longest navigational channel in the world (without locks) and a main source for foreign currency in Egypt as it injects into the Egyptian treasury about $ 6 million every day.

Since the beginning of 1981 till the first half of 2005, Suez Canal growing revenues reached $ 41 billion, of which $ 3.29 million are achieved revenues during 2004 and $ 3.9 billion achieved during 2005/06.

 

Coping with the international navigational standards, several projects were implemented to develop Suez Canal through implementing several projects, thus realizing the following aspects:

1- Applying the electronic supervision and control system for navigation in Suez Canal as to be able to keep pace with the developed mechanism in the field of electronic navigation in the world.

2- Increasing the canal draft 62 feet in 2006; work is underway to reach 66 feet by the end of the 2002-07 five years plan, thus allowing the transit of jumbo tankers loaded up to 240,000 tons.

3- Number of ships crossing the Suez Canal recorded 18,4 thousand ships during 2005/06, with total net tonnage of about 700 million tons.

4- Expanding the water section to 6750 m² during 2006. Besides, the implementation of a project to develop the navigational road has started by establishing the most recent by-pass between el-Qantara and el-Defreswar at a length of 28 km so as to contribute to increasing the length of the by-passes and double roads of the canal to 120 km. Hence, in the future it could accommodate giant carriers which are not easily accommodated in some international ports.

 

Egypt's special concern with technology is not the product of today, it stems back many years ago when the state took upon itself drawing a technological policy for Egypt that expresses its aspirations its aspirations and hopes in a technological rivival to cope with the advanced states. This was achieved though programmes that extended from 1981 till March 2000. The modernization document for the technological policy in Egypt was issued to be the starting point towards creating the future in an age where information and communication technology became a main orientation and tangible reality that Egypt is living nowadays.

 

In his address to the National Conference on Information Technology Development in 1999, President Mubarak introduced the national project for technological development. This project aims at making Egypt a producer of sophisticated technological components and a main base for information industry. This could be realized through the full cooperation between the state's organizations and the private sector by launching a wide spread national campaign for eliminating technological illiteracy in the society and enhancing the accessibility of computers in schools, universities and all governmental bodies.

 

The first specialized ministry concerned with information and telecommunication technology was established as a pioneer step in Egypt towards implementing this project in 1999. This ministry, in spite of being new, succeeded in achieving a tangible technological development through a huge leap in the field of communications that led to establishing an advanced communication network that contributed to spreading computers and Internet services to all categories in the society, beside entrenching high-technology industries that boosts export-oriented industries to create large and new sources of national income.  

 

In this present period, the state supports the development of communication and information services to provide job opportunities for youth by encouraging the international and domestic investments in communication and information technology to increase Egypt's share of global software exports in programming. Such a promising industry achieved about US 150 million to Egypt during 2005, thus, according to the Law on Investments, the number of operating ICT companies will reach about 1817 in July 2006, against 266 in 1999, also the number of ICT employees will increase to 42332 in July 2006.

 

The technological revival and the huge revolution in the field of telecommunication in Egypt is described as “Express ways of information”. It provides and spreads telecommunication services for all categories in the society through a strategy that contributed to achieving a tangible leap in the telecommunication network.

 

Telephone service is widely spread all over Egypt as telephone density reached about 14.9 percent in 2006 and total telephone exchange capacity increased to 12.9 million lines in 2006 against 6.4 million lines in 1999. Number of fixed line subscribers increased to 10.628 million and also the number of telephone exchanges in villages rose to 1138 in 2006. In the course of these developments, Egypt witnessed the spread of cell phone service at a globally unprecedented rate through the increasing of cell phone users to reach 14.8 million in 2005. Incorporating the Intelligent Network System which provides ADSL service at a velocity of K 6/S –512KB-S /256 through seven companies is considered a new and important addition which contributed to offering more telephone services to the subscribers without charges.

The comprehensive service fund for providing telephone services which is established in the middle of 2006 translates the state's policy in committing to increasing the telephone capacity in the remote and needy areas.

 

On the path of the technological development, the number of Internet users increased to 5.4 million in 2006 against 300,000 in 1999. The international communication capacity through the Internet also increased to about 5.82 billion pulse/second in 2006 and the number of minutes in the free charge Internet rose to 932.61 million till August 2006.

 

The e-Government is an advanced system that aims to promote the efficiency and quality of performance of the economic and government bodies, companies and banks. This project, which started in 2001, aims at providing high-standard service to citizens and investors directly without bureaucratic hurdles through providing remote government services as soon as needed to everybody wherever he is. A government portal on the Internet is being launched, allowing citizens to have certain transactions processed.

 

It is the first distinguished technological village that attracts foreign investments to enhance software industries and Internet services, in addition to assembling PCs and peripherals. It is a great step to cross the digital gap and overcome the technological obstacles by providing an active technological infrastructure. At the same time, it is the bases of a promising industries that contributes to exporting raw materials in cooperation with the international companies, thus putting Egypt on the map of the exporting countries for software and computer components worldwide.

 

The Presidential Decree No. 355 of 2000 was issued to allocate land for establishing the smart village along Cairo- Alexandria highway at Abu Rawash. The project is established in three phases and will be finished by the beginning of 2007 with a capital of LE 100 million, of which the private sector contributes with LE 80 million. The first phase of the smart village was opened in September 2003. Its most important building comprises a Telecommunication Centre, Businessmen Services Centre, Conferences Centre and technological incubators building which sponsors young investors in the field of technology to support and develop their business. The second phase of this distinguished village is underway.

 

The encouraging Egyptian policy for foreign investments in the village has fruited in an increase in the number of operating companies from 20 to 85.

Moreover, five agreements with major international technology companies were signed, by virtue of which the companies shall move their headquarters to the Smart Village in order to participate in building the Egyptian Knowledge Society and benefit from the rapid advance in the telecommunication and information technology market in the region.

 

It is a unique center established in the Smart Village in September 2004. It aims at raising the public awareness of Egypt's cultural and natural heritage by submitting the information technology tools in order to document this rich heritage of Egypt. It also aims to entrench and upgrade professional competences in the field of natural and cultural documentation by using the state-of-the-art digital technology.

 

“Eternal Egypt” site on the Internet is one of ten distinguished programmes administrated by the center. These programmes are: Egypt's Archeological Map, Egypt's Architectural Heritage, Egypt's Natural Heritage, Egypt's Popular Heritage, Egypt's Musical Heritage, Egypt's photographic Memory, Islamic Scientific Heritage, Manuscripts, Heritage Panorama and joint international projects. It is worth mentioning that “Eternal Egypt” project won the Universal Top price for Information in Tunisia in 2005 as it is considered a vivid record about Egypt's history, persons, places, religions and arts related to it. 

 

Due to its distinguished role on the international arena, the Cultural and Natural Heritage Documentation Centre gain the UNESCO's Award for its role in preparing a file about “The Helal's Biography”. This biography was added to the UNESCO's list for the international moral heritage.

The center participated in several exhibitions and conferences such as “The International Heritage Conference” held in Alexandria in cooperation with the UNESCO.

 

Postal service in Egypt has a long history that dates to 2000 BC, at that time it was in its primitive form. Along ages, Egypt's postal system has been steadily advancing till the postal service was first established in January 1865. It was then affiliated to several ministries and finally to the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology in 1999.

Egypt was among 22 countries that shared in establishing the Universal Postal Union (UPU) after Bern Conference in 1874 and was chosen as a member in this union. It also shared with an active role in establishing the Arab Postal Union and the African Postal Union.

 

The affiliation of the Postal Authority to the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology contributed to upgrading its services and introducing it with more efficiency and activity. The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was introduced, thus providing secure exchange of electronic documents among users through the central unit for communication (EDI SWITCH). This contributes to finding reliable various applications of E- business, E- commerce and E-government systems.

 

The first phase of the project of creating a modern digital communication network for the Postal Authority was opened in 2003 with a total investment of LE 1 million as a new step to link all offices in Egypt together with the main centers. According to the world rating of the average mail transport time between Egypt and the outside world, Egypt was classified under the first category.

 

The National Postal Authority witnessed several achievements during 2005/06, salient of which: Number of post offices increased to 5457, besides the number of automated post offices that increased to 450 and the savings in the Saving Fund that increased to total 45.118 billion.

 

The Egyptian post is starting to provide the electronic signature service that aims at providing the optimum usage of information technology to serve the commercial purposes so that the Postal Authority would be an agent between the dealer and buyer in the commercial treatments. The services which are expected to be implemented are: Collecting all bills of telephones, Gas, electricity, Care licenses fees, insurance policies and pulling out birth certificate. This project is established in cooperation between the postal Authority and the Netherland experience with a number of banks.