President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi launched Tuesday the construction of a $4 billion "new Suez Canal" that aims to speed up traffic along the existing waterway and boost Egypt's battered economy. The project foresees the creation of one million jobs at a time when Egypt is struggling to recover from more than three years of political turmoil since the ouster of long-time autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Sisi, accompanied by government ministers and army generals, set an ambitious target of digging the new canal, which would run parallel to the original Suez Canal built 145 years ago.