Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, 27 November 2014. Housing and infrastructure are among the top priorities of the Egyptian government, Egypt’s Housing, Utilities & Urban Communities Minister Mostafa Madbouly told the MEED Invest in Egypt Conference this morning.
He said the government’s accelerating investment in water and sewerage and is working on a massive development plan for the Mediterranean coast which Madbouly said was the future of Egypt.
“The north coast is the future of Egypt,” Madbouly said. “There is about 500 kilometres of coastline. It is flat land without and problems. There are huge natural resources in underground water and oil fields that the MOP is starting to develop. The plan is to create a big tourism centre on north like Sharm El Sheikh and Hurgada. We are talking about turning this area from being summer houses being used for two-three months a year to a vibrant area used all round the year. It can host easily 30m million inhabitants in the next 40 years (check years).”
We are masterplanning El Alamein city and south marina,” Those projects we are going to announce at the conference.”
“For the whole area, we are finalizing an RFP to prepare the big masterplan for the whole area, not just El Alamein and the South Marina,” Madbouly said. “This will be announced in December and we shall invite big consultants to bid. The masterplan is to be completed in six months.”
The MEED Invest in Egypt conference has been organised in partnership with the UAE Egypt Task force, which is headed by UAE Minister of State Sultan Jaber. It is endorsed by Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation; Ministry of Finance and the General Authority for Investment & Free Zones.
Diamond sponsors are EFG Hermes and CI Capital. Clean Energy Partner is Masdar. Gold sponsor is HSBC. Silver sponsors are Union National Bank and Qalaa Holdings. Bronze sponsors are Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Nareem Holding for Investment, DMG, Moutain View and Banque Misr. Conference sponsors are Hill International and EHAF Consulting Engineers. Networking sponsor is Mashreq. Sky News is exclusive media partner.
The supporting local partne is N Gage Consulting.
For full reporting of the MEED Invest in Egypt Conference, see www.meed.com.