Saudi team in push for $ 3 bn Egypt Causeway

JEDDAH: A 50-member Saudi business delegation led by Commerce and Industry Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah will meet Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi to discuss $ 3 billion Saudi-Egypt Causeway project and remove obstacles facing $ 27 billion Saudi investment in Egypt, a press report said yesterday.
“Our delegation will ask for the president’s personal intervention to remove the obstacles facing Saudi investors,” said Abdullah Dahlan, president of Saudi-Egyptian Business Council and a board member of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In a statement published by Al-Sharq, Dahlan said the delegation would press for speeding up studies on the proposed 32-km causeway, adding that the project would boost bilateral trade and facilitate travel of Egyptian pilgrims.
Egyptian Transport Minister Mohamed Rashad Al-Mateny said a technical committee would meet in late September to discuss first steps to implement the project.
The causeway will start from Ras Nassrani in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and pass by Tiran Strait before reaching Ras Hamid near Tabuk in northern Saudi Arabia.
Hussain Omran, chairman of the foreign trade department at the Egyptian Ministry of Commerce, said a causeway would expand trade by 300 percent with annual volumes rising to $ 13 billion in from $ 4.2 billion at present.
The causeway will boost tourist inflow from the Gulf to Egypt. A senior assistant to the Egyptian tourism minister said the number of Saudi tourists to Egypt could surge to more than 1.2 million from the current figure of 300,000.