The Egyptian government is studying rules to provide for possibility of owning land in Sinai while safeguarding national security, said General Khaled Fouda, a governor in Sinai. The move aims to create more job opportunities for Sinai bedouins by launching new businesses, particularly ones dealing with tourism, he added. The governor warned against speculative investments in new land plots. There are many authorities that monitor our performance, said General Fouda, at a conference to support tourism-related investments in Sinai. Most land plots affiliated to the Tourism Investment Authority, from Tor to Ras al-Bar, will be available to investors following next parliamentary elections, Fouda said. “Lateness comes because of the new land pricing policy, as land plots used to be sold for US$1 per meter,” he said. Most of the projects that stopped in Sinai did so because they were defaulting on debt, he added. He said that what is being circulated about Egypt in the western media is bad by all measures, but that hotel occupancy in Sharm el-Sheikh has increased from 15 percent to 65 percent from January to February. The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is willing to postpone payments on investor-related debt to June 30 and will help finance all tourist projects, said NBE Chairman Tarek Amer at the opening of the conference. NBE has also decided to allocate $300 million to finance a marina in Sharm el-Sheikh. With LE20 million, the bank also resumed financing 12 projects that have stopped – due do default on debt payments – since 2001. Amer stated that he is against fulfilling social demands because he believes any payouts will directly jeopardize chances of higher growth rates.
