The government is close to sealing contracts with two global companies to offer consulting services at the Economic Summit Conference, to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in 2015. Al-Borsa newspaper learned that the government chose Lazard, a financial consulting company, to prepare the conference, and HAVAS to organise the conference and undertake the logistics. The government intends to organise the summit on 21-22 February 2015 in Sharm El-Sheikh, and according, to previously ministerial statements, intends to attract investments to fund projects worth approximately $80bn. Global financial consulting company Lazard prepared a study to reform Egypt's economy last year, in which it specified the amount of investments required. Lazard will be charged with preparing and formulating plans and investment opportunities to be offered during the conference, after preparing a detailed study on a vision and strategy for a social and economic reform plan. The group will also organise meetings with global investors to follow up on the conference's results, and market the projects offered which were not agreed upon during the conference. Lazard will be responsible for mobilising a number of local and international sponsors to contribute to financing conference costs, which will be borne in conjunction with the Finance Ministry. HAVAS is an integrated, global group for communications sponsorship and services headquartered in Paris. The group, affiliated with a large number of companies globally working in the fields of marketing trade relations and projects organisation. HAVAS has a network of 315 offices in 75 nations and 14 agents in 12 nations. HAVAS will be charged with organising a media campaign promoting the conference and Egypt's economy, whilst mobilising official and private sector institutions and bodies to attend the conference. Sources within the Tourism Ministry said that it has begun the process of reserving 600 hotel rooms in Sharm El-Sheikh for conference participants. The Ministry of International Cooperation has established a unit to supervise HAVAS and Lazard's tasks leading up to the conference, with the unit planned to include a number of technical experts from the UAE. Various ministries are preparing feasibility studies for projects that will be offered at the summit, whilst the Finance Ministry has presented nine projects in the framework of public private partnerships (PPP). All ministries are expected to finish presenting projects to the private sector on 1 November. The government also intends to promote several projects and social programmes to obtain funding and support from global institutions to strengthen the social aspect of economic reform efforts. This includes programmes protecting the poor through healthcare for the elderly and the poor as well as school nutrition.
