Egypt sees big potential in Suez corridor project

Straddling one of the world's great sea routes, the Suez Canal corridor is set to become a bridge connecting Africa with Asia if a grand plan by Egypt's new government comes to fruition.

President Mohamed Mursi's administration is reviving and expanding a series of projects initiated in the late 1990s under former President Hosni Mubarak to turn the banks of the Suez Canal into a world trading and industrial centre, hoping it will earn billions of dollars and address a growing unemployment crisis.

The plan aims to transform the corridor along the 100-mile length of the canal from an area of mostly flat, empty desert into a major world economic zone.

The waterway, the main thoroughfare for the transport of cargo between Asia and Europe, i s a vital source of revenue for Egypt. But Egyptian planners believe a lack of vision and poor administration have prevented the country from maximising its location at the crossroads of two continents, something they wish to address by expanding transit facilities and slashing red tape for investors.

Goods worth $1.6 trillion a year pass through the canal, or 10 percent of the world's total shipped goods, said Ashraf Dowidar, a consultant who has been studying the project. "We're only getting $5.4 billion of this, through the tolls of the ships going through."