ISMAILIYA, Egypt: President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi kicked off a lavish ceremony to unveil a “new” Suez Canal, as Egypt sought to boost its economy and international standing by expanding the vital waterway.

El-Sissi began the ceremony by leading a naval flotilla aboard a historic yacht as fighter planes and helicopters flew overhead.

The event in the port city of Ismailiya was attended by several heads of state, including French President Francois Hollande.

President El-Sisi, elected last year on a promise to strengthen security and revive a dilapidate economy, broke ground on the canal project last August.

Initial estimates suggested the new route would take up to three years to build, but El-Sissi set an ambitious target of 12 months.

It has been touted as a landmark achievement, rivalling the digging of the original 192-km canal, which opened in 1869 after almost a decade of work.

The new section, built at a cost of $9 billion (7.9 billion euros) and funded entirely by Egyptian investors, runs part of the way alongside the existing canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

“It’s an achievement for the people who managed to fund it as a national project and accomplished it through perseverance and hard work,” El-Sisi’s office has said.

It involved 37 km of dry digging, creating what is effectively a “second lane,” and widening and deepening another 35 km of the existing canal.

It will cut the waiting period for vessels from 18 hours to 11.

By 2023 the number of ships using the canal will increase to 97 per day from 49 now, the government hopes.

Officials hope the new waterway will more than double Suez earnings from $5.3 billion expected at the end of 2015 to $13.2 billion in 2023.

Analysts were skeptical over the projections.

“The first priority for shipowners and traders is to cut costs, not speed. The trend in recent years has been for ships to travel at lower-than-normal speeds just to... save on their fuel bills,” said Ralph Leszczynski, research head at Italian shipbrokers Banchero Costa.

“I do not see any shipowner happy to pay higher fees for shorter waiting hours.”

The inauguration ceremony began with Sissi leading the naval procession.

Newly acquired French Rafale warplanes and US F-16s, delivered just last week, participated in the fly-past.

Banners saying “New Suez Canal: Egypt’s Gift to the World” and “The Egyptian Miracle,” as well as hundreds of Egyptian flags, graced the streets of Cairo and Ismailiya.

Dozens of buses ferried invitees to the site of the ceremony as security forces deployed in Ismailiya.

The waterway is a cornerstone for El-Sisi to boost his regime’s legitimacy.

The waterway is part of a comprehensive project to develop the area adjacent to the canal into an industrial hub.

“There is a stream of investors who want to invest” in Egypt, Suez Canal Authority chief Mahob Mameesh said last week.

He said around one million jobs are expected to be created over the next 15 years.