The New Suez Canal project is “Egypt’s gift to the world”, says the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Admiral Mohab Mameesh.
If that is the case, then the UAE deserves its share of credit for that.
The construction of a new stretch of waterway — which effectively doubles the canal’s capacity, allowing for two-way traffic — initially had a three-year timeline.
But that was cut to just 12 months on the order of Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
The consortium appointed to carry out the US$1.5 billion project, led by Abu Dhabi-based National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC), completed it in nine-and-a-half months.
“We signed the contract on October 15, 2014 and construction was completed by August 1, 2015,” said Yasser Zaghloul, NMDC’s chief executive. “We are very proud, of course.”
The work involved the creation of a 35-kilometre-long parallel canal, which required the dredging of 200 million cubic metres of earth.
It achieved this by bringing together four of the world’s largest dredging contractors — NMDC, Belgium’s Jan De Nul and the Dutch companies Van Oord and Royal Boskalis Westminster. “We had more than 70 per cent of all dredging capacity in the world,” said Mr Zaghloul.
Without this, there would have been little chance of completing the project on time, he said.
“We deployed 26 dredgers and 40 additional equipment — an unprecedented number to have been deployed in a single project,” said Mr Zaghloul.
The contractors also faced the major challenges of securing approval and clearances to use the machines and transporting them to Egypt from all over the world.
The first dredgers began operations within two weeks of the contract being signed.
“Mobilising all the dredgers and staff was a challenge, but we had a really strong logistics team to manage this,” said Mr Zaghloul.
“The difficult thing was to get all the necessary permits. But the [Suez Canal] authority was very proactive.” At the project’s peak, the consortium was dredging 1.5 million cubic metres of earth a month. In one month, it dredged a total of 40 million square metres of material, beating the previous record of 8 million square metres.
The project involved 2,000 people from 45 countries working around the clock to ensure its timely completion.
The Suez Canal Authority expects to increase its annual revenue from $3.5bn to $13.2bn by 2023 because of the new canal and a huge new economic zone created on its banks to drive investment.
William Jackson, an analyst with Capital Economics, said the new canal would help to “raise GDP growth, increase services exports and provide a much-needed increase in foreign currency revenues” as well as boosting government revenues.
“Of course, how immediate the benefits are depends on how quickly the extra capacity in the canal is used.”
He believes the government’s forecast of doubling capacity by 2023 is optimistic, especially given sluggish current global trade levels and the fact that the integration of world markets that took place during the early part of the 21st Century “seems to be running out of steam”.
“As a result, while I think the wider canal will still provide benefits for Egypt’s economy, they may be smaller than expected.”
Despite this, he said that plans to build logistics and manufacturing hubs on the canal’s banks could, if successful, provide an important boost to productivity, employment and living standards.
“Egypt has many of the ingredients to be a successful manufacturing hub — it has a young and growing population, low labour costs, and a geographical position near wealthy European markets.”
NMDC’s shares trade on the Abu Dhabi stock exchange. They are down 20.1 per cent so far this year, but have rebounded from the low of Dh4.30 a share that they touched on June 1. Yesterday the shares closed at Dh5.51.
mfahy@thenational.ae
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Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Kashima Antlers 3 (Nagaki 49’, Serginho 69’, Abe 84’)
Guadalajara 2 (Zaldivar 03’, Pulido 90')
MATCH INFO
Uefa Nations League
League A, Group 4
Spain v England, 10.45pm (UAE)
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Miguel Cotto world titles:
WBO Light Welterweight champion - 2004-06
WBA Welterweight champion – 2006-08
WBO Welterweight champion – Feb 2009-Nov 2009
WBA Light Middleweight champion – 2010-12
WBC Middleweight champion – 2014-15
WBO Light Middleweight champion – Aug 2017-Dec 2017
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
INFO
What: DP World Tour Championship
When: November 21-24
Where: Jumeirah Golf Estates, Dubai
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Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
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Six tips to secure your smart home
Most smart home devices are controlled via the owner's smartphone. Therefore, if you are using public wi-fi on your phone, always use a VPN (virtual private network) that offers strong security features and anonymises your internet connection.
Keep your smart home devices’ software up-to-date. Device makers often send regular updates - follow them without fail as they could provide protection from a new security risk.
Use two-factor authentication so that in addition to a password, your identity is authenticated by a second sign-in step like a code sent to your mobile number.
Set up a separate guest network for acquaintances and visitors to ensure the privacy of your IoT devices’ network.
Change the default privacy and security settings of your IoT devices to take extra steps to secure yourself and your home.
Always give your router a unique name, replacing the one generated by the manufacturer, to ensure a hacker cannot ascertain its make or model number.
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Five expert hiking tips
- Always check the weather forecast before setting off
- Make sure you have plenty of water
- Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
- Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
- Take your litter home with you
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
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