CAIRO: Chairman of Saudi Jihan Holding Group Ahmad Badib has blamed the Egyptian Ministry of Investment for delaying production from the polyester industrial complex that the Saudi group has established in cooperation with Egyptian investors in Alexandria at a total cost of $550 million. Jihan Group holds a 50 percent stake in the Egyptian Saudi Company for Petrochemicals, which set up the polyester production assembly in the Sibco industrial zone in Alexandria on 160 feddans. Nevertheless, Badib said on Wednesday that the Ministry of Investment has been obstructing production from the complex for five years with red-tape and bureaucratic measures for licensing operation. For his part, the head of investment committee at the Alexandria Businessmen Association Abdul Monem Hafiz promised that the association would contact officials of the Ministry of Investment to explain the reasons for delaying production at the polyester complex. He pointed out that such delays were contradicting the Egyptian government s objectives to increase Saudi investments in Egypt, which recorded LE 7 billion in 2005.
