Launching of the technical cooperation in Egypt

A technical cooperation program was launched in Cairo on 10th October, 2018 following the technical cooperation agreement in cosigned on 12th November, 2017, by the Ministry of Investments and International Cooperation of Egypt (MIIC), the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the CODATU, and the CEREMA. The technical cooperation is funded by the AFD’s Fund for Technical Expertise and Exchanges (FEXTE) and will benefit more specifically the Ministry of Transport who will lead the project for the Egyptian counterpart.

During this mission, CODATU and AFD representatives met the beneficiaries of the Ministry of Transport, as well as representatives from the National Authority for Tunnels (NAT), the Egyptian Company for Metro Management and Operation (ECM), Greater Cairo Transport Regulatory Authority (GCTRA), the Egyptian National Railway (ENR), and the Alexandria Public Transport Authority (APTA). The activities of CODATU and CERMEA, and the technical cooperation contents were presented during the launch session. This sessions was chaired by Prof. Khaled Hamdy, Senior Assistant Minister, in the presence of Prof. Ali Huzayyin and the director of AFD Cairo, Dr. Fabio Grazi.

The stakeholders discussed the implementation and monitoring of the cooperation program. In particular, the setting up of the Steering Committee and the Technical Committee for a period of 18 months.

Themes of cooperation

Seven themes have been validated for this technical cooperation, namely:

• Out-of-fare box financing mechanisms
• Improving design of the stations of Cairo metro and Alexandria Raml tram in order to enhance commercial exploitation (including advertising)
• Supporting professional design of two major interchange stations of metro line 3
• Supporting metro operation management to reduce and monitor operation cost, and
• Designing and implementing training programme for raising capabilities of Cairo Metro maintenance staff
• Supporting establishment of metro and Alexandria tram fare system entity
• Supporting GCTRA professional performance and HR development

A field visit was made by the Cooperation manager and the Senior Consultant with an ECM and NAT agents at four main metro stations : Sadat, Attaba, El Shohada and Adli Mansour.

The first workshop will address the issue of inter-modality and interchange stations, focusing on two metro stations in Cairo line 3. The preparation for this workshop will begin by the identification of two stations to be discussed during the working sessions.