Egypt said on Tuesday it would build a new 72-km (45-mile) canal alongside the Suez Canal, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority said.
"This giant project will be the creation of a new Suez Canal parallel to the current channel of a total length of 72 kilometers," Mohab Mamish told a conference in Ismailia, a port town on the Suez Canal, broadcast by state television.
Mamish said Egypt needs a similar major project to support the economy, considering it Egypt's national project in the twenty-first century.
He said Egypt needs to benefit from the project by all means to be a global partner in the field of ports, adding that the new canal will include the establishment of tourist areas as well as commercial and agricultural areas explaining that it will provide two million job opportunities in all governorates.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrived Tuesday morning at the club of the Suez Canal Authority in Ismailia, accompanied by a number of ministers and senior state officials, to announce the launch of the new project and to announce the party that won the project's general plan.
Sisi stressed Tuesday in a speech delivered during the event that the project should be concluded within one year only as "we do not have leisure time."
Sisi added there should be real hope on the ground for Egyptians.
