Egypt
said it has invested $8.4 billion on the Suez Canal project as part of
measures to double the cargo traffic on the waterway, expand its economy
to benefit small scale businesses, and create one million jobs.
The North
African country said the project would kick-start its economic recovery
which suffered a slow down from the 2011 political crisis.
The Press
and Information Officer, Egyptian embassy in Nigeria, Ahmed Maher,
stated that the construction of the New Suez Canal, scheduled to be
commissioned in Cairo in August, 2015, would help Egypt to rebound and
rebuild its economy.
Maher, in
an interview on Thursday in Abuja, noted that about 41,000 people have
been engaged in the construction of the canal, which began 10 months
ago.
According
to him, the new canal would double the economic contribution that the
old canal is bringing in, especially with the additional six tunnels for
cars and rails.
He said,
“New Suez Canal is the name of a waterway project in Egypt, expanding
the existing Suez Canal between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
“It was
launched simultaneously with plans to build six new tunnels under the
canal and to transform a 76,000 km area on both banks of the canal into
an international logistics, commercial and industrial hub that would
create one million jobs.”
The
embassy spokesman described the new Suez Canal as the shortest shipping
route between Europe and Asia and an alternative to Cape of Good Hope
route, noting that the enlarged canal would allow ships to sail in both
directions at the same time over much of the canal’s length.
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