The Suez Canal earns Egypt 5 billion US dollars a year. The country says that the new Suez Canal is now finished, and it should increase revenues by 2023 to 15 billion dollars.
Egypt hired six firms to finish the project in a year. The new canal includes a 34-kilometre cut through the desert, and people dredged 35 kilometres of existing bodies of water.
The Egyptian president sees the project as a symbol of national pride for Egypt.