Egypt denies intention to privatize the Suez Canal
Egypt, Economics, 8/28/2001

The Egyptian authorities concerned have denied the existence of any intention to privatize the Suez Canal, stressing continued work to develop the Canal by self means without reliance on international contracting companies.

The chairman of the canal commission Lt. Gen. Ahmad fadel said on Monday in a statement " Should the Nile or the Pyramids will be privatized, then the Suez Canal will be also privatized."

He explained:" the decision to decide fees for using the naval course of the Canal is ours and nobody can imposed it on us, rather international changes and conditions," He added that the reason behind the decrease in the revenues is because of the attitude to establish " over- seas" transport companies. He noted another challenge which is the recession in the production of the Eastern Europe states and Russian exports, besides the further reliance of the Arab Gulf states on more than one outlet to export their oil and to use other means for transportation besides the Canal..

He noted that the phase of expanding the basin of the Suez canal to 62 feet to contain ships of 200 to 220 thousands tons was carried out by self Egyptian efforts without the help or participation of a foreign contractor, adding that this was at a cost of USD 757 million. A figure which would be USD 1.837 billion should this operation was made in collaboration with foreign sides.

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