The Tourism Development Authority (TDA) plans to offer four investment opportunities for integrated development projects in Ain Sokhna next week, as part of total development plan covering 19m square metres. TDA announced its desire to offer the area in Ain Sokhna during the second half of 2014, said Ibrahim Ashmawy, investment advisor to the minister of tourism. The area of each individual integrated development project is over 500,000 square metres, Ashmawy said. He added that the goal of offering these investment opportunities is to create competitive tourism centers that can be implemented quickly. According to Ashmawy, bidding will be conducted under the preferential bidding system in which a winner is selected on the basis of past financial and technical efficiency as well as its ability to implement the project in accordance with TDA's requirements. TDA head Serag el Din Saad said in a previous interview with the Daily News Egypt that the group would offer in total 19m square metres this year in the hopes of attracting investments valuing EGP 9bn. "The Tourism Development Authority has been one of the most economically active bodies in the recent past, with investors paying more than 76% of dues," he said. The Ministry of Tourism hopes to activate the ‘one-stop shop' system in the near future in order to facilitate processes for investors. This includes working to make Egypt more attractive to investors with foreign capital, Ashmawy said. Investments in TDA land amount to EGP 68bn, of which foreign capital accounts for no more than 3.5%, according to the authority. "We are working to reorganise the house from within, before marketing a group of investment opportunities externally," Ashmawy said. Tourism Minister Hisham Zaazou charged Ashmawy with following up on implementation of the new system in the framework of the state's desire to attract new investors to the sector, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Tourism on Tuesday.
