The government hopes to finalise studies on the three financial proposals of the Golden Triangle Project this January, with the intent to begin implementation within 2015. Technical proposals from three companies; one Italian, one American, and one British, for the project in the south of Egypt were completed, according to Ismail Gaber, Chairman of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). He added that one of these companies is working with an Egyptian company, however refusing to disclose its name. The Golden Triangle area for mining extends from the Eastern Desert between Qena, Al-Qusayr, and Safaga to the Red Sea Coast. According to the IDA, this area is rich with different minerals, constituting 75% of the mining materials in Egypt. The total land area of the Golden Triangle is 38,000m2, according to the IDA. Government statements issued by the cabinet announced that investments for developing the area are at EGP 230bn, and they will provide up to 400,000 job opportunities. The development of the Safaga Mining Port on the Red Sea Coast falls within the plan of implementing the Golden Triangle Project, according to the IDA chairman. The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry is planning to put forward a tender for developing Safaga Mining Port in March for investors, in order for implementation to take place through public–private partnership (PPP) with a cost of EGP 1.2bn, according to Atter Hannoura, Head of the PPP Central Unit at the Ministry of Finance. With regard to industrial investors' complaints of the increase in industrial land price, Gaber said that they are working on the real estate list to offer land to industrial developers, in order to prevent land freezing, a technique used by some in order to sell the land at higher prices later. Gaber acknowledges that industrial land prices in Egypt are high compared to other countries, adding that this is temporary during government supervision on offering lands to industrial investors in order to avoid freezing of land. The authority will put 168 pieces of land for tender from different areas, as well as another 30 lands in Kafr El-Dawwar for textile industries. Chairman of the Egyptian Union for Investors, Mohamed Farid Khamis, criticised the increase in land prices in Egypt, comparing it to other countries competing with Egypt in terms of attracting foreign investments. The government hopes to achieve a GDP growth rate of 3.5% by the end of the fiscal year (FY) 2014/2015, which will lower the budget deficit to 10%. In a press release, Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman stated that the government is looking to pump investments exceeding EGP 348bn, most of which will be implemented by the private sector. Egypt hopes to launch several mega projects during the economic summit in March, in order to lure investments worth $12bn to $13bn, according to Minister of International Cooperation Naglaa El-Ahwany. Gaber declared that several ministries sent these studies to the Ministry of International Cooperation to conduct its own feasibility studies with international companies, so that efficient marketing for these projects is done in the economic summit in March.
