Egypt’s gift to the world
EGYPTIAN President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stands in a boat on the Suez Canal as he attends the celebration of an extension of the canal in Ismailia, yesterday. Egypt opened an $8.2 billion (R104.63bn) expansion to the Suez Canal, the first of a series of mega projects promised by the government to transform the country after years of political and often violent turmoil. Cairo’s streets are adorned with billboards and flags praising President Al-Sisi and celebrating “Egypt’s gift to the world”. Convoys carrying dignitaries to a ceremony on the banks of the canal were accompanied by jeeps loaded with soldiers, with French President François Hollande and North Korean deputy leader Kim Yong Nam attending. Officials have played up the canal expansion’s potential to redraw the “map of the world” just as the 146-year-old original did, even as shipping industry analysts have doubted its necessity. – Bloomberg