Egypt seeks cash, prestige boost with 'new Suez Canal'

Egypt on August 6 inaugurates a "new Suez Canal" waterway touted as an achievement rivalling the digging of the original, as it seeks to boost both its economy and international standing.

The ceremony, to be attended by foreign dignitaries including French President Francois Hollande, comes just over two years after President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief, overthrew his Islamist predecessor.
 
Sisi broke ground on the project last August after winning a presidential election on promises of strengthening security and reviving the ailing economy.
 
The new 72-kilometre (45-mile) waterway, built in less than a year at a cost of $9 billion (7.9 billion euros), runs part of the way alongside the existing canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.
 
It will cut the waiting period for vessels from 18 hours to 11.    

By 2023 the number of ships using the canal will increase to 97 per day from the current 49, the Suez Canal Authority website said.
 
"It sends a message to the public and foreign investors that the government is capable of accomplishing something in a set calendar," Amr Adly of the Carnegie Middle East Center told AFP.
 
"Since (former president Mohamed) Morsi's ouster the new regime is engaged in a political conflict to prove its legitimacy inside and outside Egypt."  

"The ability to accomplish such an economic project is part of cementing this legitimacy."          

Sisi set an ambitious target of digging the waterway in just a year despite an initial estimate it would take up to three years.
 
Officials say the entire funding for the project was raised in six days by selling investment certificates to domestic investors.