Egypt Prepares to Inaugurate Expanded Suez Canal
Project cost $8.5 billion, stirred patriotic fervor
Egypt is set to inaugurate a new $8.5 billion extension to the Suez Canal. The project is meant to bolster the credibility of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and, many hope, boost the country's economic recovery after years of turmoil. Photo: AP.
CAIRO—The government has promoted it as the “rebirth of Egypt.” The Egyptian public paid for it by gobbling up state-issued bonds. And a public lottery was held to determine which ordinary Egyptians would get a coveted ticket to attend its gala opening Thursday.
The object of the hoopla is an $8.5 billion expansion of the Suez Canal, a project that has stirred patriotic fervor in Egypt and salved a national psyche bruised by simmering political divisions and an increasingly sophisticated Islamist insurgency.
“The New Suez Canal represents an accomplishment by the people of Egypt who were able to self-finance this national project and proved their ability to deliver results through their diligence and hard work,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said during a visit to the waterway last week.
The 120-mile canal is already the fastest route between Asia and Europe and accounts for 8% of the world’s sea trade, according to the Suez Canal Authority. The canal’s improvements, including the building of a 23-mile parallel channel, will allow two-way traffic for the first time and reduce waiting times by as much as eight hours for ships traversing the waterway.
A cargo ship crosses through the New Suez Canal in Ismailia, Egypt, last month. PHOTO: REUTERS
Yet for Mr. Sisi, the vast undertaking represents not only a hope for more critically needed hard currency and economic revival. He also seeks to burnish Egypt’s—and his government’s—image.
To mark the inauguration, new passport stamps trumpet the project as “Egypt’s Gift to the World,” Cairo’s Tahrir Square has been festooned with strings of blue and white lights and Thursday has been declared a national holiday.
Since leading a military coup in July 2013 against President Mohammed Morsi, a top official in the Muslim Brotherhood, Mr. Sisi has overseen a crackdown targeting Mr. Morsi’s supporters and other government critics and opponents.
His government has criminalized street protests, sentenced hundreds to death in mass trials and, according to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights, imprisoned some 40,000 political opponents and their supporters.
In meetings on Sunday in Cairo, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Egyptian officials to enact political reforms and promote a freer press ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for October.
Meanwhile, a rebel group with ties to the Sunni Muslim extremist group Islamic State hastaken root in the Sinai Peninsula. These troubles, in turn, have threatened a tourism sector that, together with foreign aid, drives Egypt’s economy.
For all the difficulties Mr. Sisi faces, Thursday’s opening represents a major accomplishment for Egypt: It will open within the one-year deadline set by the president, an accomplishment underscored by countdown clocks to the opening that private and state-run television stations have featured.
Nearly 43,000 laborers using some of the world’s largest dredgers worked around the clock to meet the goal, and for Mr. Sisi’s ardent supporters, that is no small feat.
“The project has already restored Egypt’s prestige globally,” said Juliet Shafiq, a 59-year-old engineer. “It has shown the world that when Egyptians want something, they get it done.”
Throughout its 146-year history, the canal has been crucial source of revenue. Equally important, it has been a symbol of Egyptian independence ever since 1956, when President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized it from the British- and French-owned Suez Canal Company.
So from the moment Mr. Sisi announced the project last year, many Egyptians embraced it. Special government issued bonds worth $8.2 billion were bought up in eight days.
Besides the return on their investment, many Egyptians were enthused by government promises of revenue and jobs, and its plans to use the project as an anchor for a multibillion-dollar development zone that will eventually account for a third of the country’s economy.
There were economic and political costs. Foreign contractors were needed to help the project, requiring an emergency infusion of short-term loans from Egyptian banks. Also, hundreds of villagers were displaced to make room for the expansion.
Whether the New Suez Canal succeeds in helping usher in more prosperity in the Arab world’s most populous nation is uncertain, experts said.
Egyptian workers wave at a container ship sailing on the waterway of the New Suez Canal in Ismailia, east of Cairo. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
By 2023, authorities say, the number of ships transiting the canal daily will increase to 97 from is current level of 47, and revenue from the waterway will nearly triple to $13.2 billion from $5.3 billion.
The estimates are based on a 4% growth in world trade between 2003 and 2014, to 10.4 billion tons from 6.7 billion tons, said Suez Canal Authority spokesman Tarek Hassanein.
Colin Cridland of Clarksons, an integrated shipping services provider, isn’t so sure. He described the government targets as “big claims with no obvious factors to support.”
Mr. Sisi’s hope that the ambitious undertaking also will rally and unify Egyptians behind his government must overcome deep divisions, some of which reach into households.
Mohamed, a dentist who declined to provide his surname, said the canal project hasn’t changed his view of the president, whom he accuses of misleading the public with unrealistic promises and of playing down his government’s human-rights violations.
His mother, Azza, a retired pharmacist, disagreed. “He’s getting things done,” she said. Glancing at her son, she added: “Doubters will remain suspicious of his achievements, but that won’t stop him.”
