Egypt starts ceremony of opening "New Suez Canal"

Egypt officially started on Thursday afternoon the official opening ceremony of the "New Suez Canal" in the presence of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and world leaders and officials representing over 120 countries, Xinhua correspondent reported from Ismailia, about 120 km northeast of the capital Cairo.

Sisi gave the go-ahead signal for the national "New Suez Canal" project on Aug. 6 last year and ordered it to be completed in one year sharp.

The project included a newly-dug 35-km waterway alongside the original 190-km Suez Canal, plus a 37-km expansion and deepening of some parts of the existing one.

The ceremony is attended by nearly 800 world leaders and senior officials including French President Francois Hollande, King Abdullah of Jordan and King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

Among them are also Emir of Kuwait Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Egyptian officials said the new waterway is expected to increase the Suez Canal's annual ship traffic revenues from 5.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2015 to 13.4 billion by 2023, attracting huge foreign investments and creating thousands of job opportunities.

The new waterway will minimize the ship waiting time from 11 hours to three hours and the crossing time from 20 hours to 11 hours. Endit