Privatising Suez Canal could be key to solving Egypt’s economic crisis

On the evening of 26 July 1956, President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, until then owned by mainly British and French shareholders. “Tonight, I am wresting control of the company on behalf of the Egyptian people… We will reclaim the profits that this imperialist company – this state-within-a-state – made while we were starving to death,” he proclaimed in a speech in Alexandria.

The announcement drove the crowd wild with delight. Nasser promised that the $100m annual revenues derived from charging international shipping to pass through this strategic Egyptian waterway would now be used to construct a dam at Aswan, a crucial step in the industrialisation of the country.

Since then, the canal has played not only an important role in the economic development of modern Egypt but has also been symbolic of the country’s self-determination. However, almost seven decades on from Nasser’s famous proclamation, could Egypt’s increasingly serious economic crisis threaten Cairo’s control over this vital piece of infrastructure?