Egypt invests $8.4bn, plans one million jobs

punchng.com

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.