Al-Tayyar Travel Group is currently awaiting a response from the cabinet on a report from the Cairo Governorate regarding a dispute over the company's land in the Hakr Abo Doma area, according to Managing Director of the company Yossrey Abdel Wahab. The company offered to build housing units for low-income families in order to prove that it is serious about arriving at a solution, according to Abdel Wahab. The company owns two plots of land in Cairo overlooking the Nile in Hakr Abudoma on an area of 10,000 square metres. The two plots were purchased from the governorate of Cairo 11 years ago, said Abdel Wahab. "Al-Tayyar paid EGP 73m for the value of the land purchased and did not receive a deed." Abdel Wahab added that the issue made foreign investors fearful of conducting projects in Egypt. He added that studies confirmed that the company's failure to receive a deed for the land resulted in revenue losses greater than EGP 1bn over 11 years. The company aims to construct a global tourism complex with a capacity of 2,000 rooms, combining hotel rooms with luxury tourist apartments to meet demand from Arab tourists. The company asked the governorate of Cairo to allow construction to reach 148 metres instead of 72. "The company is considering the number of units that will be adopted in the framework of a settlement solution," Abdel Wahab said, declining to disclose the projected cost and land area in which the units will be constructed. Total Al-Tayyar investments in Egypt at the moment amount to EGP 8bn, a figure that will rise to EGP 13bn over five years when new investments are infused into projects in Cairo and Ain Sukhna, Abdel Wahab said. Former President Adly Mansour commissioned the Cabinet with solving investment issues with Saudi Arabian firms. Saudi Arabian investments in Egypt are worth $6bn, according to the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones. "Complex government procedures negatively affect the investment climate. It drives investors away, in reality," Abdel Wahab added. At the start of 2014, the cabinet amended the Investment Law, prohibiting third parties from challenging contracts made between the government and investors. The government recently completed 200 tourism housing units as a part of its Ain Sukhna project. Abdel Wahab added that Bedouin attacks in the recent past have disrupted project implementation. Investments in the project are worth EGP 300m for an area measuring approximately 150,000 metres, Abdel Wahab said.
