CAIRO: The winners of contracts to design, finance, furnish and build 345 new schools as part of Egypt's ongoing public-private partnership (PPP) program will be announced in late July, said Rania Zayed, director of the Ministry of Finance Public Private Partnership Central Unit yesterday. The Finance Ministry expects 2,100 schools to be built under the program's auspices in the next five years, she said. The 345 schools covered by the contracts to be announced this summer represent the first of seven waves of contracts planned by the ministry over the coming half-decade. The contracts are divided into "lots, each of which consists of about 50 schools, she said. The first wave will include seven lots. So far about six groups are involved in the bidding, a figure Zayed cautioned could change in the coming months. She said the ministry expects to receive all bids for the first wave by the middle of July. Zayed said many investors involved in the program are foreign, hailing largely from the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. Under the terms of their contracts, they are expected to recoup their investments over 15 years. Public private partnerships have been a large part in the ongoing liberalization efforts of the Egyptian government in the past few years. The finance ministry is contracting PPPs in the areas of schools, transportation, hospitals and water sanitation. The government decided to move forward with the program after a successful trial run in October 2006 with the offering of 50 schools to be built by the private sector in 11 governorates. In the education sector, among the most advanced PPP initiatives, private companies will design, finance, build, furnish and maintain Egyptian schools.
