Egypt launches new trade corridor linking Saudi Arabia and Iraq
Egypt inaugurated a new trade corridor with Saudi Arabia and Iraq, which aims to establish a regional trade route connecting the three countries, according to a report published Tuesday by Al-Masry Al-Youm.
The report said that Safaga Port on the Red Sea recently handled the first trial shipment within the project. The initiative is part of a modern multimodal transport system combining maritime shipping and land transport, designed to reshape trade flows between the Arab Mashreq (Arab Levant) and North Africa.
Instead of relying on traditional, time-consuming, and costly routes, the new path starts in Cairo, passes through Egypt's national highway network to Safaga Port, continues across the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia's Neom Port, and then moves overland to Erbil in Iraq's Kurdistan Region.
Maritime sources at Safaga Port told the Egyptian Al-Masry Al-Youm Newspaper that the pilot shipment demonstrated a reduction of more than 50 percent in transport time compared with conventional routes. They added that this gives the new corridor a strong competitive advantage, particularly at a time when some traditional international trade passages face geopolitical challenges.
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