Less than a year after Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi announced construction of a second Suez Canal, the first ships have traversed the new route. The significance of this ought not be underplayed, either in engineering terms or in the broader context of the Arab world's most populous country.
The engineering achievement is impressive enough, with the 72-kilometre route requiring 37km of new canal and nearly as much dredging and deepening of existing waterways. The second route will mean ships can navigate the canal in either direction at any time instead of having to wait at anchor until the next northbound or southbound convoy.
But the wider context is far more important. President El Sisi announced the canal two months after he was elected with a mandate to revive Egypt’s economy and to improve the prospects for its 82 million citizens. This achievement bodes well for his efforts to do just that.
