The Qustul Land Port between Sudan and Egypt will officially open Thursday, Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab announced Saturday.
First Vice President of Sudan, Bakri Hassan Saleh, will participate in the inauguration, along with a number of the Egyptian and Sudanese Ministers, Youm7 reported.
“Qustul port is a chance to link Egypt to Africa and revive their trade relations,” said Mohamed Shehata, Chairman of Egyptian Transport Association.
Shehata added that Africa is ready to be a market for Egyptian goods, whether it be agriculture crops, plastics or textiles.
The port was built following the 2011 revolution and was opened experimentally in August 2014, and it has been operating on a limited basis since then.
He added that the port made 5.5 million EGP ($721,000) in revenues with an investment cost 85 million EGP ($11.14 million,) since August 2014.
Nearly 39,000 Sudanese have arrived in Egypt via Qustul, while 35,500 departed to Sudan using it. Also, around 2,500 trucks departed to Sudan via the port while 1,900 arrived through it, according to Hegazy.
Qustul port was built over the area of 60,000 square meters, at a cost of 47 million EGP, according to Youm7.
“Qustul port will reduce travel time between Egypt and Sudan from 17 hours via through Nile ships, to only 5 hours via the port, which will facilitate transport processes between the two countries,” Asaad Abdel Maged, the Chairman of the High Dam eastern port, previously told Youm7.
In April 2014, Egypt and Sudan signed an agreement to operate the border crossing. The agreement was signed by Mohammed Abbas, the African-Arab Cooperation Department Officer at the Egyptian International Cooperation Ministry and Abdel-Mahmmoud Abdel-Halim, the Head of the Regional and Bilateral Relations Department at the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, according to the State Information Service.
A number of meetings were launched between the two countries to review tightening control on borders after repeated reports of smuggling and human trafficking hot spots.
