November 19, 2014 Nathan Associates Paul E. Kent has joined a World Bank team advising Egyptian authorities aiming to turn the Suez Canal area into a major trade and industrial hub.

Kent, a globally recognized authority on logistics and infrastructure, is the only port specialist on the 16-member team, the World Bank Advisory Panel on the Suez Canal, and the only member from outside the World Bank. The panel will help the Egyptian governments Suez Canal Authority evaluate and shape the master plan for the multibillion-dollar development project.

Dar Al-Handasah Consultants (Shair and Partners), Bahrain-registered firm, and its Egyptian branch are developing the master plan. The government will seek domestic and international investors.

As conceived by the Egyptian government, the project will turn the canal area into a center of industry and of logistical support for shipping. In a related activity, the Egyptian government has begun a project to increase the shipping capacity along 45 miles (72 kilometers) of the 120-mile (193-kilometer) canal by widening and deepening a portion of the canal and by digging a new, parallel lane.

The canal, one of the worlds most important waterways, joins the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea with the Indian and Western Pacific oceans. Fees provide about $5 billion a year for the Egyptian government. Kent, Nathans senior vice president for infrastructure planning and economics, has directed or participated in port and logistics projects in almost four dozen countries. His expertise encompasses institutional, legal, organizational and regulatory aspects of infrastructure planning as well as assessing the competitive landscape, making strategic plans, studying the feasibility of master plans, and analyzing logistics.