Chinese president Xi Jinping is looking to attract trillions of dollars worth of trade on the back of its Maritime Silk Road project and has offered to make the Suez Canal part of the project, following Egypt’s unification with China in the Silk Road economic belt’s trade union, according to Menafn.com.
It was previously reported by PTI that China Shipping Group and the Bank of China had signed a US$14.4 billion global strategic co-operation agreement that would be used for the benefit of the Silk Road project.
The Egyptian Businessmen Association (EBA) was chosen to represent Egypt in the Silk Road trade union in cooperation with the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce.
Andy Lane of CTI Consultancy said: “In its present capacity and state, the Suez canal already compliments the so-called “Maritime Silk Road”, ensuring a robust supply chain to/from China. It is not in play for the vast majority of energy imports to China, and therefore it could not be viewed as critical by them for the overall success of their 'project'.”
China has also recently announced that it wishes to take greater control of its policy banks in order to better finance the Silk Road project.
The maritime Silk Road is being developed in an effort to connect Asia, Africa and Europe and thereby provide better links between China and Europe via the South China Sea, the Malacca Strait and the Indian Ocean.
The project has recently faced much competition, with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi proposing his own project called ‘Project Mausam’ to rival the Maritime Silk Road by rejuvenating trade connections between countries within the Indian Ocean.