Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi directed to continue implementing the Suez Canal development strategy with all its components, to enhance its unique position as a waterway on which the global trade movement depends, and as one of the tributaries supporting the national economy. This came during a meeting of Al-Sisi on Monday with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and Chairperson of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabei. During the meeting, Rabei reviewed the indicators of global navigation traffic in the Suez Canal during the past three years, as the figures of ships transiting in 2020 reached about 18,830 ships, to rise in 2021 to 20,694 ships, and increase during 2022 to 23,583 ships. He explained that this led to the canal achieving a record return by the end of last year of about $8 billion, an increase of 25% over 2021, due to the digging of the new Suez Canal and the continuous efforts to benefit the stages of the canal's development strategy, which was reflected in the increase in the outcome of its capacity. The Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority also presented the authority's efforts to develop its marine fleet and its multi-use tugboats, some of which are manufactured in partnership with the expertise of the foreign and local private sectors in the arsenals of Port Said, the southern Red Sea and Alexandria. In addition to reviewing the efforts to develop the southern sector of the canal's navigational course at a length of 40 km, which includes the duplication of the canal and the expansion and deepening of its navigational course, in order to improve the movement of navigation and international trade crossing the canal. In a related context, Al-Sisi followed up efforts to localise the fishing boat industry in Egypt, in a meeting with the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Mustafa Al-Dogishi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Southern Red Sea Arsenal Company, and Major General Hisham Amna, Minister of Local Development. Al-Sisi was also briefed on the executive position regarding the localization of the modern fishing boat industry, directing his sovereignty to integrate the process of producing these boats in parallel with the state's efforts to develop natural lakes at the level of the republic and initiatives to support fishermen. The meeting also witnessed the president's briefing on the efforts to participate with the private sector in the localization of the modern yacht industry, and the maintenance, repair and construction centres that follow, given the potential that Egypt enjoys in the field of marine tourism across the Mediterranean and the Red Sea and the Suez Canal corridor, taking advantage of its unique geographical location and the modern ports it possesses along the coasts of the republic, which doubles the added value of the state in this field.
