Egypt’s New Suez Canal will open on August 6, the canal authority chairman said, a project that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hopes will stimulate an economy suffering double-digit unemployment, Reuters reported. The army began work 10 months ago on the new canal, built alongside the existing 145-year-old historic waterway at a cost of $8 billion and part of a multi-billion-dollar project to expand trade along the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia. The Suez Canal is a vital source of hard currency for Egypt, particularly since a 2011 uprising that scared off tourists and foreign investment.
