Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed a decree launching traffic along the extension of the Suez Canal, an Interfax correspondent reported from the scene.
El-Sisi congratulated all those attending the inauguration ceremony on the occasion, saying that the Suez Canal extension is “a gift to the world.”
The new Suez Canal runs parallel to the old waterway laid 145 years ago to be the shortest water link between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
The new Suez Canal, like the original, will be state property. The construction was financed from domestic funds. The Egyptian government issued bonds yielding 12 percent per year and investors snapped them up in just eight days. Construction works were carried out 24/7, with some large-scale assistance from engineering forces of the Egyptian Army.
The new Suez Canal was built in just one year and is worth $8.5 billion.
The project of the New Suez Canal envisaged the deepening the old canal and the creation of a parallel waterway. The new course is expected to increase the canal’s capacity.
The goal of the project is to ensure the two-way traffic of vessels. Vessels will go through the old canal from the south to the north and in the opposite direction through the new one.
The average waiting time for vessels passing through the canal is to decrease four times, while the canal’s capacity is to grow from 49 to 97 vessels a day.
Egypt’s income from the canal is expected to rise from the current $5.3 billion to $13.2 billion by 2023.
The Suez Canal accounts for 7 percent of global sea traffic, playing a key role in supplying Europe with oil from the Middle East. The canal is the second largest source of foreign exchange for Egypt after tourism.
It is also planned to create a major international logistics and industrial hub around the canal in the future.
