Plans also include an international and logistics hub designed to attract more shipping traffic. The Suez Canal is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia. Six firms, two from the Netherlands, two from Belgium and one each from the UAE and the United States, recently signed contracts to dredge the new canal.

Meanwhile, the biggest expansion of the Suez Canal since it opened in 1869 will boost syndicated bank loans in Egypt, according to the Commercial International Bank (CIB) Egypt SAE, Egypt's largest publicly traded bank.

According to data compiled by Bloomberg, syndicated lending in Egypt rose 61 percent between January and September 2014. The CIB foresees that market growing by 25 percent in 2015.

Despite being North Africa's most populous nation, Egypt is one of the world's least banked countries. World Bank data reports that only one in ten adults maintains a formal bank account, so an uptick in bank lending could lead to an economic renaissance. Statistics compiled by Bloomberg indicates the Egyptian economy has improved over last year's, and if economic indicators continue as they have been, that nation will see its strongest economic growth since 2010.

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Tami Kamin Meyer is an Ohio attorney and freelance writer. She may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..