The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) was able to recover the LE 20 billion cost of establishing the New Suez Canal in less than a year, said Chairman of the SCA and the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) Mohab Mamish.
Mamish explained that the canal’s revenues in the fiscal year 2017/18 reached LE 99.1 billion ($5.6 billion), an increase of LE 25.8 billion from the fiscal year 2016/17, when revenues had reached about LE 73.3 billion. This was enough to cover the cost of digging the new canal.
During a meeting for the Industry Committee in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Mamish said that investors are rushing and competing to buy lands in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. He added that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gave directives to manufacture 100 fishing vessels in the SCZone.
Mamish pointed out that everything that was developed in the SCZone area was done by Egyptian hands and Egyptian industry.
On August 5, 2014, Sisi launched the beginning of the New Suez Canal project. He was keen on finalizing it within only one year and inaugurated the new canal on August 6, 2015.
The New Suez Canal is considered a valuable addition to the national economy, represented in the growth of the national income due to the increase of the Suez Canal’s revenues, establishing industrial and economic entities, establishing and developing a number of ports, and encouraging all other factors of production.
The project added a new 35-kilometer-long (22 mi) second shipping lane to the existing canal. The enlarged capacity allows ships to sail in both directions at the same time. Beforehand, much of the canal was only wide enough for one lane and then had limited wider basins for passing. The new canal has decreased waiting time from 11 hours to 3 hours for most ships and also increased the number of ships crossing.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
