Ayyady for Investment and Development will establish a fund, entitled Papyrus, for investment in tourism projects, to revive the sector and help supply it with domestic and foreign investments. The fund aims to collect investments worth $250m for its projects. The mentioned figure will be collected under the supervision of authorised investment managers from the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA). Minister of Planning Ashraf Al-Araby and Minister of Tourism Hisham Zaazou coordinated and agreed on launching the fund, state-run news agency MENA reported. The ministers agreed on both the operational and time framework for establishing the fund and submitting the necessary documents to the EFSA, in preparation for submitting the project during the March Economic Summit. Ayyady for Investment and Development was launched in December 2014. The company was launched with EGP 10m capital, of which 20% was provided by the Egyptian government, while the remaining 80% from the private sector. Earlier this month, the Ministry of Tourism announced that five tourism projects will be offered at the March Economic Summit, worth total investments of EGP 5.3bn. The projects will include an EGP 1.076bn resort in Hurghada, an EGP 318m on the North Coast and two others is Marsa Allam, worth EGP 1.215bn and EGP 663m respectively. A sports resort in south Safaga was also announced, with an EGP 1.989bn value of investments. Tourist numbers arriving to Egypt increased to 10 million in 2014, compared to 9.5 million tourists in 2013. The number of nights spent by tourists in 2014, however, decreased to 94 million nights, compared to 97 million nights in 2013.
