Egypt鈥檚 el-Sissi launches 鈥榥ew Suez Canal鈥
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With much pomp and fanfare, Egypt yesterday unveiled a major extension of the Suez Canal billed by its patron, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as a historic achievement needed to boost the country’s ailing economy after years of unrest.
El-Sissi, wearing his ceremonious military uniform and trademark dark sunglasses, flew to the site aboard a military helicopter and immediately boarded a monarchy-era yacht that sailed to the venue of the ceremony.
The yacht was flanked by navy warships as helicopters, jet-fighters and military transport aircraft flew overhead. A visibly triumphant el-Sissi stood on the vessel’s upper deck, waving to well-wishers and folklore dance troupes performing on shore.
Later in the day, the president changed to a dark grey business suit and took his seat at the main stand for an elaborate ceremony in the canal city of Ismailia, attended by foreign dignitaries and organized amid tight security measures following a series of attacks by Islamic militants in the Sinai Peninsula and the capital, Cairo.
Among those at the ceremony were French President Francois Hollande, King Abdullah of Jordan and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Kuwait’s Emir Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras also attended.
The unveiling of the US$8.5 billion extension has been trumpeted as a historic achievement by pro-government media and has revived the nationalistic personality cult built around the el-Sissi, 60, who as army chief led the overthrow of an Islamist president in 2013 and was elected to office last year.
The new Suez Canal extension involved digging and dredging along 72 kilometers of the 193km canal, making a parallel waterway at its middle that will facilitate two-way traffic. With a depth of 24 meters, the canal now allows the simultaneous passage of ships with up to 66 feet draught. The project was initially estimated to take three years, but el-Sissi ordered it completed in one.
The government says the project, funded entirely by Egyptian investors, will more than double the canal’s annual revenue to US$13.2 billion by 2023, injecting much-needed foreign currency into an economy that has struggled to recover since the 2011 uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak.
The man-made waterway linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, which was inaugurated in 1869, has long been seen as a symbol of Egyptian national pride.
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