That the event of unveiling of "new Suez Canal" by Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is news that can be aptly termed an oasis or an isolated area of vegetation in the desert of Sinai. Excitement of such description has been warranted by a highly pleasant occurrence in a region blighted by deep political turmoil and violence. The Arab Spring that triggered unprecedented popular uprisings not only in Egypt but across entire North Africa and the Middle East region in recent times led to the removal of Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak. The political unrest that followed Mohammad Morsi's rise to power provided the Egyptian army with a plausible reason to wrest power to "maintain peace and restore stability" in the largest Arab state in terms of population. Egypt is not only the world's largest importer of wheat and the most popular face of the entire Arab world in relation to the pre-Islamic and Arab culture and intellectual persuasions; it is the best global tourist attraction insofar the ancient history of this region is concerned.
The images of the grand ceremony of "unveiling of new Suez Canal" provided by a host of regional and global TV networks invited the attention of the entire world to the expansion of world's greatest artificial sea-level waterway, connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. The project has been rightly termed a landmark achievement, rivaling the digging of the original 192-km canal, which opened in 1869 after almost a decade of work. The canal is also remembered for the Suez Crisis or the invasion of Egypt in 1956 by Israel, followed by France and Britain. The expansion of this $9 billion project, which has literally added a new water lane to the canal, funded entirely by Egyptian investors, runs part of the way alongside the existing canal connecting the two seas. It involved 37-km of dry digging, creating a "second land", and widening and deepening of another 35-km of the existing canal. It is expected that the number of ships using the canal will increase from 49 now to 97 by 2023. Although it will also lead to reducing the waiting time for vessels by almost half, this facility will be of less significance because traders' principal priority is cutting cost, not speed.
Moreover, the event, which took place in the port city of Ismailya, was characterized by Egyptian fanfare and celebrations. Participated by heads of state, including French President Francois Hollande, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Yemen's President Mansour Hadi and Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the event received the cheers of hundreds of guests when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrived aboard a historic yacht at the head of a naval flotilla as fighter planes and helicopters flew overhead showcasing Egypt's military prowess or might.
That the Egypt project is a critical development project aimed at improving this North African country's economy, which is mainly dependent on remittances from overseas Egyptians, the waters of the Nile and the Suez Canal waterway, is an excellent example of efforts by a third world country, that too is fighting off terrorism and extremism. The project will surely enable Cairo to go back to the economic growth rate that it had achieved during the protracted Mubarak era, and even beyond, to create new job opportunities for millions of unemployed Egyptians, particularly youth.
The Suez Canal project does throw up an opportunity for Pakistan's policymakers to draw a valuable lesson, for Islamabad too is faced with the challenges of joblessness and militancy. The Egyptian waterway expansion project has been projected to increase Suez earnings from $5.3 billion now to $13.2 billion by 2023. What about our projections of return on investments with regard to infrastructure projects such as the Metrobus and motorways? Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is said to be a great admirer of Shershah Suri, one of the greatest administrators and rulers of medieval India, who is fondly remembered for laying one of the longest roads of Asia, Grand Trunk (GT) Road, linking South Asia with Central Asia. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, according to a top finance ministry official who worked with both Benazir Bhutto and him in their prime ministerships, pays only scant respect to Return On Investment (ROI) -a method employed to evaluate the efficiency of investment insofar as public spending is concerned. He was quoted as saying that Shershah Suri might have faced the prospects of a worsening fiscal deficit when he undertook the execution of mega infrastructure development project but he still went ahead with that project to be remembered by the GT Road users after the elapse of years, decades and even centuries. What a profound outlook!
Comments
Comments are closed.