The Suez Canal Corridor Area Project (Arabic: مشروع تطوير محور قناة السويس) was a megaproject in Egypt that was launched on 5 August 2014 by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and was completed in 2015.
Construction of the rest of the projects (which included building the city, industrial zone, "technology valley", and fish farms) began in February 2015.
Hassaballah El Kafrawy sought to turn the canal corridor into an international logistics region rather than just a passageway for ships.
In 2012, the Muslim Brotherhood introduced a development project for the Suez Canal region during the presidential elections.
Orascom Construction Industries The New Suez Canal (Egyptian Arabic: قناة السويس الجديدة Kanāt El Sewēs El Gedīda) is an artificial waterway project in Egypt which created a second shipping lane along part of the Suez Canal, and deepened and widened other stretches.
The project was inaugurated by the Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish in the presence of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on 5 August 2014.
[3] The new canal opened one year later in a ceremony attended by several international dignitaries including the former French President François Hollande.
The New Suez Canal is expected to expand trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia.
The Egyptian government said that these revenues will be used to transform the cities along the Canal (Ismaïlia, Suez, and Port Said) into international trading centers.
[10][11] The channel was officially inaugurated with a ceremony attended by foreign leaders and featuring military flypasts on 6 August 2015, in accordance with the budgets laid out for the project.
A recent forecast from the IMF suggests that in the decade up to 2016 the annual rate of growth for global merchandise trade will have averaged 3.4%.
[14] About 18 scientists writing in the academic journal Biological Invasions in 2014 expressed concern about the project impacting the biodiversity and the ecosystem services of the Mediterranean Sea.
They called on Egypt to assess the environmental effects that the canal expansion could cause, a request echoed by the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
However, the government quickly changed its financing strategy, relying on interest-bearing investment certificates that do not confer any ownership rights to investors.
[citation needed] The government blocked access to the official revenues reports for three months after the opening.
It then published two reports for August and September, which showed consecutive decreases in the total Suez Canal revenues by 10% or $150 million.
[19] In 2014, the former chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Mohab Mamish, announced that seven new tunnels will be dug to connect the Sinai Peninsula to the Egyptian homeland.
The first three tunnels will cost 18 billion Egyptian pounds and Arab Contractors and Orascom are the builders for this project.
[citation needed] The industrial zone project will cover 910 acres of land northwest of the Gulf of Suez.
The location of this city is designed to accommodate the workers of the nearby Wadi Al-thechnologia (Technology Valley) which will be built in the following years.
The port borders the Mediterranean Sea from the north, the industrial zone from the south, the salty lakes from the east, and the Suez Canal branch from the west.