The New Suez Canal: Egypt Polishes Its Image

The ceremony for the opening of what is being called the New Suez Canal will be full of pageantry and grandiose visions for Egypt's economic future. The completion of a new 72-kilometer (45-mile) waterway should double the canal's capacity and will cut the waiting period for vessels transiting the canal, according to the Suez Canal Authority. But even if Cairo's lofty projections for increased revenue from canal traffic are realized, completion of the waterway will do little in the short term to change Egypt's economic profile.