Costs for the opening ceremony of the new Suez Canal, scheduled for August 6, will reach US$30 million, according to Hani Shukry, representative for the WPP consortium in Egypt, who said that the Egyptian government will not absorb any of the costs, but that the funding will instead come from Egyptian and foreign companies.
In a phone call with a talk show aired on the privately-owned TV channel CBC on Saturday, Shukry said, “'Egypt the future' will be our motto in promoting the ceremony abroad. We are coordinating with other international advertising agencies to organize the ceremony.”
“We are challenged to be ready for the opening on time. We witnessed accomplishments made by the government to carry out the project in a short period of time, so we accepted the challenge of carrying out the opening ceremony in a short period of time, too,” he added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
