High-level German delegation to attend new Suez Canal project opening

A high-level political and economic delegation from Germany will attend the inauguration ceremony of the new Suez Canal project next week led by Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy and Vice Chancellor of Germany Sigmar Gabriel, said German Ambassador in Cairo Hansjorg Haber.

Gabriel has participated in Egypt Economic Development Conference in March in Sharm El Sheikh.

Egypt has made a great accomplishment with carrying out the canal project in just a year without foreign funding, Haber told MENA on Monday.

Executing logistic and industrial support projects will back the Egyptian economy and international trade, the German envoy said, adding that Germany will benefit from the new canal as the third largest commercial country in the world.

Egypt will in turn benefit from the sustainable growth of German’s trade and expansion in Asian markets, he said.

The German companies that had participated in carrying out the new canal project are willing to contribute more when work starts for establishing a new logistic center between the Red and Mediterranean Seas, he said.

On 5 August 2014, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi launched the new waterway project, which is being dug alongside the Suez Canal. It is meant to add an extra lane to the Suez Canal, one of the world's most important thoroughfares for trade, in an attempt to increase the number of ships using it each day.

The Suez Canal, which allows ships to travel from Europe to Asia without navigating around Africa, only provides for one-way traffic, with occasional room for ships to pass each other. The new lane will allow ships to travel in both directions.