At long last, the Sinai may be about to get the attention it deserves, reports Ahmed Selim Sinai has everything going for it. It has extensive coastlines bordering on the Mediterranean and Red seas, access to crucial navigation lanes, an ancient and colourful culture, tourist attractions, spiritual destinations and abundant mining possibilities. Experts even claim that it has enough agricultural land to feed the rest of the country. Yet, thus far the peninsula has not always been able to keep its promises. Despite the immense success of Sharm El-Sheikh and other scattered tourist resorts in the south of the Sinai, the rest of the peninsula is virtually uninhabited. Now, however, this may be all about to change, the government has promised. After a spate of attacks in the north of the peninsula and along the borders with Israel, the government of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has promised to remake the Sinai. Among the promises made so far is action to redress uncertainties surrounding land ownership in the Sinai, a privately-funded university, a government-run authority to develop the Sinai, and a project to turn parts of the peninsula into major agricultural, industrial and urban centres. Experts are hopeful that the government's promises are going to see the light, adding that the Sinai could benefit from a larger educated class, from a tribal community that owns the land it lives and works on, from the better utilisation of the peninsula's mining resources, and from the systematic development of the huge touristic and industrial potential of the region. According to Salah El-Buluk, a development expert, the decision to create a special ministerial agency to develop the Sinai was a step in the right dimension. The area needed a realistic database showing the exact demographic distribution of the population, he said. "There is a need to create a third governorate in the Sinai, and we need to examine the economic conditions of the population," El-Buluk said. He suggested that an urgent plan for development be established, involving the creation of small industries, adding that the Sinai could generate some LE26 billion ($6.3 billion) in revenues from its mineral resources alone. Atef Matar, who works for the agricultural department in the Sinai, said that there were nearly half a million feddans of potential farmland in the Al-Sirr and Al-Qawwar districts in Central Sinai. "If supplied with water and planted, this land could make Egypt self-sufficient in agricultural products," Matar said. Agricultural projects on this land could generate an annual income of LE10 billion ($1.6 billion), he added, attracting more than one million people to Sinai. Qadri El-Kashef, director of tourism in North Sinai, said that the government's decisions could help to transform the Sinai. "We need a property law that must be debated in the community," he said. According to El-Kashef, the local administration in the Sinai should have powers that do not overlap with those of the central government in order that "we do not have too many chefs in the kitchen." Once security is restored in the Sinai, a detailed development plan should be drawn up specifying the type of agricultural, industrial, touristic, or commercial ventures that are needed and their intended locations. El-Kashef added that the Sinai had immense resources, including quarries, white sand, salt, cement and coal. "Sinai has access to maritime lanes in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and there is a land route running from Taba to Rafah," El-Kashef said. "We must think outside the box. We have a shortage of water in Sinai, but the terrain resembles that of the Negev, where the Israelis use unconventional methods, including shaded farming, hybrid strains, and genetically modified products in their agriculture," he said. El-Kashef called for the use of water from underground reservoirs, pointing out that much of the water saved in open-air reservoirs evaporates during the hot season. One way to promote tourism, he said, would be to follow up on a preliminary plan to develop 21 square kilometres to the east of Arish. "The Tourist Development Authority and the Urban Planning Organisation have put together a plan involving a marina for yachts that could compete with facilities in Turkey and Greece," El-Kashef said. Water sports centres could also be developed. "We could replicate the Lebanese experience and build spas using water, sun-bathing, and herbs for therapeutic purposes," El-Kashef said, adding that the creation of conference and business centres should also be looked into, as well as the establishment of banking services. Such facilities should be attached to new urban areas in order to provide labour for development projects. According to El-Kashef, projects on this scale could bring the country upwards of LE15 billion ($2.5 billion) per year. Community activist Mohamed Ismail El-Bek said that the government's plans were to be welcomed as long as local communities were involved in decision-making and follow-up. "The people of the Sinai know the land better than anyone else," El-Bek said. An overhaul of ownership regulations in the Sinai could give a boost to investment, while also reassuring local people about the future. Al-Bek suggested that a community-based project for developing the Sinai in cooperation between civil society and the local administration be set up. "Five of the poorest villages in the border areas could be selected for agricultural projects and the digging of wells. Medium-sized industries using local material would then follow," he said. Writer Aziz El-Ghali said that the new Sinai University should focus on tourism, the fishing industry and geology, all of which were relevant to the future development of the peninsula. "Developing the Sinai is the best way to support the local community and to stamp out terrorism," he said. According to expert Hossam Refaai, new ownership laws should recognise the status quo. "Title deeds should be granted upon the payment of a fixed fee, not a fee based on current prices," he said. Refaai explained that all the land in Egypt used to be owned by the state and a law passed in 1907 allowed individuals to hold title deeds. Because the Sinai lacked the administrative apparatus to enforce the law at the time, this system was not extended to the peninsula. "Sinai didn't have a proper legal system at the time, and it didn't have notarisation, survey and physical record offices. This was unfortunate, as well as unfair, to the locals," Refaai said, adding that ownership rights in the Sinai should be reserved exclusively to Egyptians. According to Saleh Mohamed Saleh, a professor at the Arish Education College, the creation of a private university in the Sinai would change the attitude of the locals. "An increase in the number of educated people in the Sinai would have a lasting effect. So would the increase in the population that the creation of a university would lead to," he said.
