The cost of designing the displays for the Grand Egyptian Museum project has not been yet calculated due to the flotation of the Egyptian pound, according to the museum's general supervisor Tarek Tawfik,. Tawfik told Daily News Egypt that the cost calculation is part of the general contractor's work, and it cannot be finalised at the current time due to the liberation of the US dollar exchange price. The German company Atelire Bruckner, which won the Ministry of Antiquities' tender for the museum display designs, is completing the project. The foreign exchange rates against the pound are experiencing fluctuations since the Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) decision to float the pound, which registered a remarkable increase from EGP 8.88 to EGP 18. Tawfik said 52% of the project works are complete, as 85% of the concrete and metal work in the museum's buildings is finished. Work on the moulding and flooring installations in the exterior of the museum are under way; work on finishing the interior has begun in the King Tutankhamun halls. The restoration museum has received 40,000 monuments, 30,000 have been already restored and maintained; while 3,000 of King Tutankhamun's artefacts have been restored and prepared for museum display. He explained that 67% of Japan's first loan has been spent; the ministry seeks to finish the second loan's procedures in order to complete the project on time. Minister of International Cooperation Sahar Nasr and Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anany signed a financing agreement in October with the Japanese ambassador in Cairo and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency's (JICA) official to finance the Grand Egyptian Museum with $460m. Japan provided the first financing trench worth $300m in 2006. The total cost of the Grand Egyptian Museum is roughly $1bn. The opening of first phase will take place by the end of 2017 and the final opening will be in 2020. The Grand Egyptian Museum's project is implemented on an area of 117 acres; it includes the main museum building which includes commercial and recreational services buildings, antiquities display halls, and a museum garden. Source: Daily News Egypt
