At the end of the press conference, which was held Saturday at Panama Embassy in Egypt, Suez Canal Authority head Mohamb Mamish and Panama's Ambassador to Cairo Tomas Guardia answered a number of questions asked to them about Panama and Suez Canals. China has allocated large sums of money to revive the Silk Road project, what is the impact of this project on the two canals? Mamish: We follow up the competitive roads and competition leads to develop our performance, and after following up the competitors we can say that the performance of Suez Canal is satisfactory due to the following reasons: the first reason that traffic in the Suez Canal is faster and the waiting time reaches 11 hours only, as well as increasing the canal's depth that allow a number of ships to pass through the canal without any problem. As for the Silk Road project, we are following it, but we do not interfere. In return, we prepared a marketing policy to improve our navigational services. Ambassador Guardia: I agree with Mamish; I think that the Suez and Panama Canals are the most important maritime roads as the Silk Road is expensive and inefficient, and the goods must pass a number of points. Suez and Panama Canals are running year-round unlike the proposed alternative routes. With the risks and challenges of the decline in global trade, was spending on the development of the two canals essential at this time? Mamish: I disagree with this matter, as the change of the dollar value led to the high development expenses. If we waited the development expenses would be higher, as the dollar value when we started the development of Suez Canal was 7 pounds, but it reached now 11 pounds. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi always keens to accelerate the implementation of new projects in order to provide job opportunities for youth. Ambassador Guardia: Panama Canal reached its maximum capacity in 2005-2006. The Canal will be able to accommodate ships with a draft of 15.3 meters compared to the 12 meters and if we did not have begun in the development of the Canal we were going to lose a lot. The question for Ambassador Guardia: What is the gross yield of ships crossing the Panama Canal? Is it worth the money spent on development work? Ambassador Guardia: In 2015 we made a great gross yield from the canal crossing fees as well as other marine fees that reached more than $ 2 billion, which a large amount of it was allocated to public treasury to be invested in infrastructure and education developments. The canal's development project and expansion cost $5.25 billion with a $3 billion self-funding, besides signing a number of contracts with agencies in order to get the remaining fund such as signing agreements with the Development Bank of Japan and the European Investment Bank. In return, the project has provided more than 30,000 job opportunities. What about the Russian road across the Arctic that Russia proposed as an alternative route to the two Canals? Mamish: We wish them success, but there are several difficulties that face this road as it remains frozen for 6 months and then it takes two months to melt and become navigable for four months only. Furthermore, the ships need to break ice in order to pass through the road, which raise the transportation costs. This road witnessed passing of 46 ships only in one year, while the same number of ships transit the two canals per day. Is there an intention to sign an agreement between Suez and Panama Canals to confront the risks? Mamish: We will cooperate with Panama Canal in rescue sector, in the latest accident, which happened in Suez Canal, we were able to reduce the losses by shifting the path of the ships to the new Suez Canal. There will be also an exchange of experiences in logistics and services fields because of the Panamanian experience in these sectors. Is there an intention to collect fees in local currency in Panama Canal? Ambassador Guardia: After the independence of Panama we had the Balboa as our local currency, but after that the dollar became our local currency. Is there an intention to increase transit fees? Ambassador Guardia: This is the affair of Panama Canal Authority, which always discusses this issue with the canal users, but it is also non-mandatory. Mamish: There is a committee that determines the canal's fees annually, according to several factors, including the oil price, freight expenses and other variables, because the reduction of the fees does not mean that the increase of the ships passing through the canal, so the fees were determined according to the global trade rate. In light of the global trend towards conglomeration, is there an intention to develop the relationship between the two canals? Mamish: We have already communicated with the trade blocs; but we do not want to unite economic and pricing policies through raising costs and transit fees, so we discussed during Kuwait meeting ways to reach a convergence point between price and quality of services. Ambassador Guardia: We are seeking for more cooperation and direct talks between the two authorities, as we look forward to Mamish's upcoming visit in order discuss ways of cooperation between us.
