In 510 BC, Darius the Great, the Achaemenid king, ordered the completion and reopening of the canal between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. But thousands years later, in November 1869, the Suez Canal was built for ship traffic. (Photo quoted from Yahoo’s image)
The Suez Canal connects a strategic waterway (about 190 km long) from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The Suez Canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia. If this canal did not exist, ships would have to sail around the entire African continent.
This canal is one of the main sources of Egyptian foreign exchange earnings. For the Egyptians, the name Suez is prominent and national. Jamal Abdel Nasser took the canal from Britain and France. The Suez Canal was closed in the 1956 crisis and the Six days war between the Arabs and Israel in 1967. But recently, the closure of the Suez Canal and the congestion of transportation happened while the world trade has slowed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
If we take a look at Egypt and the Suez Canal development plan, it should be said that in the first step, the new Egyptian Suez Canal project with coordinates of 35 km in length, 350 m in width and 25 m in depth was officially put into operation in 2015.
The new Suez Canal, by preventing the old problems of the Suez Canal, aims to facilitate traffic in both directions, minimize the waiting time for ships, reduce the time of transit, increase the number of transit ships to 97 in 2023 and increase of the canal’s revenue to more than $ 13 billion in that year (more than double its current revenue).
Meanwhile, the opening ceremony of the new Suez Canal was accompanied by a high level of international participation. Meanwhile, Egypt hopes to increase confidence in the Suez Canal as the best international transportation corridor in the world and the region in the future by implementing the development project in the Suez Canal region. In the meantime, the increase in demand for the use of the canal, and the increase of the carrying capacity of ships passing through the canal will certainly help to increase Egypt's national income and the development of the Egyptian national economy.
In addition, the inauguration of the new Suez Canal in 2015 is the beginning of new projects, including the Suez Canal Development Project and the development of Port Said Port, the Ismailia region, and areas adjacent to the canal. The new Suez Canal has turned to the starting point for a comprehensive development strategy for the whole area of the canal.
In the past few years, the Egyptian government has been pursuing the process of preparing the infrastructure for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, meeting the needs of investors, building a road network, and giant tunnels under the canal, attracting more investment in this area. In fact, Egypt is building tunnels under the Suez Canal to connect Egypt to Sinai, facilitate traffic in both directions, build and develop new Ismailia region, create a technology valley, and develop comprehensive ports by 2030 to maximize the role of the Suez Canal region as a global industrial, economic and international center.
What is clear is that the development project around the Suez Canal is one of the most important national projects for more investment and turning Egypt into an important economic center.In addition, Egypt is working to reach closer to its ambitious goals in the Suez region by increasing the international position of Suez, increasing the level of navigation safety, developing and maintaining the route, developing canal navigation stations, using modern technology, and developing naval and dredging fleets.
Farzad Ramezani Bonesh
Senior Researcher and Analyst of International Affairs
