The Economic Summit in Sharm El-Sheikh has witnessed the signing of several investment agreements in some sectors amounting to $142.2bn, according to Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman Sunday. "The size of the agreements signed between Egypt and international companies or institutions, on the first and the second days amounted to $33bn in installation and operation projects," Salman added. "The total grants and aid during the two days amounted to $5.2bn, besides the memorandums of understanding (MoUs), which stood at $92bn, as well as the memorandums of understanding for the first phase of The Capital Cairo with the amount of $45bn." The housing, transportation, petroleum, tourism, and investments sectors won the largest of this amount, but no statement has been made regarding Suez Canal Axis investments. The housing sector won the bulk of investments with a total amount of $68.1bn in projects, The Capital Cairo, October Oasis and South Marina. The announced investments in the electricity sector totalled $21.2bn, which will be used to build: a combined cycle power generation plant in the Beni Sueif governorate; electricity generation stations in Nubaria, Sidi Krier, South Cairo, Qena, and Kafr Al-Dawar; a power-generating coal plant; a combined-cycle power plant (2,200MW) in western Damietta; and developing a national electricity grid. The total amount of investment in the petroleum sector was valued at $21bn in an Oilfield Development Agreement, including agreements on new discoveries around the Nile, and developing oil fields. The investment sector has received a total of $9bn, allocated to five real estate projects and the construction of a new juice factory in Beheira Governorate. Investments in the Supply Sector represented in MoUs will see the establishment of logistics centres in Damietta and Ain Sokhna, totalling $6bn. The transportation sector investments totalled $5.9bn in some projects, including: a third basin plant at Ain Sokhna Port; the establishment, operation, management and financing of a railway electrification project near Abu Qir in Alexandria; as well as an agreement on the manufacturing of trains in Egypt. This comes in addition to a railway cargo transfer system between Ain Sokhna and Helwan, the building and development of a multi-purpose station in Alexandria and the development of railways in Abu Qir. Socio-economic development projects will be implemented by the Ministry of Cooperation in conjunction with several international organisations to the tune of $2.947bn. This will run in addition of a cooperation protocol valued at $1bn to establish economic projects in Upper Egypt through cooperation between Egypt's Armed Forces and Falcom Financial Services. The tourism sector's only project is the establishment of a fund for direct investment and tourism development projects with fund amounting to $1bn. Agreements for loans and grants were signed, including loans of $3bn from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to finance petroleum products imports. A second loan worth €120m will come from the European Investment Bank with the participation of National Bank of Egypt (NBE), to support private sector companies in Egypt. In addition to this, a loan worth $200m from the IMF and a grant worth €130m from the European Union will support social and economic development in Egypt.
