ISMAILIYA: President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi unveiled an expanded Suez Canal on Thursday in a lavish ceremony, with the first ships passing through the waterway in what Egypt hopes will boost its economy and global standing.

Mr Sisi, dressed in a ceremonial military uniform, arrived aboard a historic yacht at the head of a naval flotilla as fighter planes and helicopters flew overhead.

The former army chief, who later changed into a business suit, formally opened the $9 billion waterway to the cheers of hundreds of guests, including foreign dignitaries.

“Egyptians exerted massive efforts to offer to the world a gift for the sake of humanity... in very difficult economic and security conditions,” said President Sisi in a speech, as the first cargo ships passed through.

He pledged to defeat militancy, which has bedevilled the country since he overthrew his Islamist predecessor, Mohamed Morsi, in 2013.

Security was tight, with the self-styled Islamic State group’s warning to execute a Croatian kidnapped near Cairo threatening to overshadow the celebrations.

The event in the port city of Ismailiya attended by heads of state, including French President Francois Hollande, comes two years after Mr Morsi’s overthrow.

The ouster unleashed a deadly crackdown on Islamists, and a jihadist insurgency has since killed hundreds of soldiers east of the Suez Canal.

Mr Sisi opened the ceremony by leading the flotilla aboard a refurbished yacht once owned by the former royal family, which carried French Empress Eugenie de Montijo at the canal’s 1869 inauguration.

Elected last year on a promise to strengthen security and revive a dilapidated economy, Mr Sisi broke ground on the project last August.

Initial estimates suggested the new route would take up to three years to build, but Mr Sisi set an ambitious target of 12 months.

It has been touted as a landmark achievement, rivalling the digging of the original 192-kilometre canal, which opened in 1869 after almost a decade of work.

The new section, funded entirely by Egyptian investors, runs part of the way alongside the existing canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. It involved 37 kilometres of dry digging, creating what is effectively a “second lane”, and widening and deepening another 35 kilometres of the existing canal.

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 49 now, according to government projections.

Officials hope the new waterway will more than double Suez earnings from $5.3bn expected at the end of 2015 to $13.2bn in 2023.

But analysts were sceptical over the targets. “The first priority for shipowners and traders is to cut costs, not speed.

The trend in recent years has been for ships to travel at lower-than-normal speeds just to... save on their fuel bills,” said Ralph Lesz­czynski, research head at Italian shipbrokers Banchero Costa.

Thursday’s guests included Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Yemen’s exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

Newly acquired French Rafale warplanes participated in the fly-past.

Banners reading “New Suez Canal: Egypt’s Gift to the World” and “The Egyptian Miracle” as well as hundreds of national flags, graced the streets of Cairo and Ismailiya.

Dozens of buses ferried invitees to the site of the ceremony as security forces were deployed in Ismailiya.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2015

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