Govt denies report of Saudi-Egypt causeway
Published: Mar 2, 2012 23:11 Updated: Mar 4, 2012 21:37
While Egypt has warmly welcomed reports about an agreement with Saudi Arabia to construct a $3 billion causeway linking the two countries together, the Saudi Ministry of Transport denied any knowledge of such an agreement, local Arabic daily Al-Watan reported yesterday.
The newspaper on Thursday quoted an official source at the ministry as saying that the two countries have renewed an agreement to construct a 50-km-long causeway on the Red Sea to be named "King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Causeway."
"There is no any such agreement to the effect between the ministry and any other party concerning the project," the Saudi Transport Ministry said in a statement.
It said the project was never discussed in any of the meetings involving the ministry with the Egyptian side. "No official from the ministry had made any statement regarding this issue," the ministry added.
Meanwhile, the Egyptians welcomed the revival of the project, which has been under discussion since 1988, and said it was proof of the Kingdom's keenness to further consolidate the brotherly and historic ties between the two countries.
The Chairman of foreign trade department at the Egyptian Ministry of Commerce Hussain Omran said such a causeway would increase trade between the two countries by more than 300 percent from the present $4.2 billion annually to more than $13 billion in two years.
He said, upon completion, the causeway would facilitate the movement of people and goods between the two countries by saving a lot of time and effort.
Hisham Zazoua, senior assistant to the Egyptian Minister of Tourism, expected the causeway to increase the number of Saudi tourists visiting Egypt every year to more than 1.2 million from their present number of 300,000.
"The causeway will encourage Saudi families to go to Egypt in their own private cars thus increasing the number of Saudi tourists more than fourfold," he said.
Zazoua said the causeway would further boost intra-Arab tourism between Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
According to the statements attributed to an official source of the Saudi Ministry of Transport, which the ministry later denied, the construction of the causeway would start mid-2013 and would shorten the distance between the two countries to 20 minutes only.
The causeway was to extend from Tabuk, in the northern borders of the Kingdom, to Egyptian ports.
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