Egypt's Central Stamp Committee is discussing designs for the postal stamp to be issued in celebration of the new Suez Canal's expected inauguration in August, the Ahram Arabic news website has reported.

The committee has agreed on a competition between various artists from Egypt's faculties of fine arts, applied arts and art education, as well as artists from the Postal Authority's design department, to design the best stamp for the occasion.

Completed designs will be collected by the end of June, and the best designs will be proposed to the Central Stamp Committee, who will choose which design to feature on the celebratory stamp.

Launched in August 2014, the new Suez Canal project aims to add a new 72-kilometer-long shipping lane to the existing canal linking the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, and to develop the zone around it into an industrial and commercial hub.

A ceremony to inaugurate the new canal is to be held on August 6.

The upgraded canal is expected to speed up traffic along the waterway and to boost its economic revenues, projected to more than double from $5.3 billion at the end of 2015 to $13.2 billion in 2023, according to official estimates.

Built 146 years ago, the Suez Canal is one of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes and has been a key source of international trade, earning Egypt billions of dollars in annual revenues.