President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met today with Chairman and Managing Director of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Admiral Osama Mounier Mohamed Rabie.
The Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency stated that the meeting discussed the efforts made by the Suez Canal Authority.
In this regard, the President was briefed on navigation rates in the Suez Canal. In this regard, Admiral Osama Rabie confirmed that the new Suez Canal, which was opened in 2015, doubled the annual revenues of the canal which exceed $7 billion. Moreover, the number of ships transiting the canal increased to reach about 70 vessels per day, contributing to efforts aiming to support the national economy and provide foreign currency.
The new Suez Canal also contributed to reducing carbon emissions from vessels transiting it by a total of 53 million tons due to the canal’s capacity increase and the reduction of transit time, thus supporting the canal’s efforts to become a green canal by 2030.
The President directed that Lake Bardawil be developed. These efforts are part of Bardawil Sinai Development Initiative to which the Suez Canal Authority contributes, in cooperation with DEME Group.
These development efforts aim to increase the production of Lake Bardawil. The target is to increase the production of high-quality fish from 4000 tons to 11,000 tons annually in the short term, and up to 50,000 tons in the medium term.
These efforts also contribute to the reclamation of agricultural lands and the enhancement of vegetation and afforestation in Sinai on an area of 15,000 square kilometers.
The Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority briefed the President on the navigation indicators in the canal from the beginning of this year until now. This includes the numbers of passing vessels and cargo and container volume, which helped achieve record growth and a revenue increase compared to last year. The revenues are expected to reach about $7.8 billion by the end of this year.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of The Presidency, The Arab Republic of Egypt.
