The Egyptian Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hala El-Said, announced that the government is close to completing three major deals with private-sector investors in the fields of petroleum, power, and water. She told Daily News Egypt that the deal to sell Wataniya Petroleum, a state-owned company that operates gas stations, will be awarded to the winning investor within six weeks. She said that the due diligence checks by the interested companies are almost done. She also said that the deal to sell Jabal Al-Zeit power station, a wind farm located on the Red Sea coast, is expected to be finalized before the end of this year. She did not reveal the name of the investor but said that the deal is part of the government's plan to exit some sectors in favor of private-sector investors. She added that the deal to sell National Company for Natural Water in Siwa (Safi), a company that produces bottled water from underground sources in the oasis of Siwa, could take more time. She said that two strategic investors are currently conducting due diligence, which will be completed by the end of October. A document issued by the Information and Decision Support Center of the Cabinet last August confirmed the details of these deals. It said that the government will begin receiving financial offers for Safi by next November. It also said that the deal for Wataniya will be implemented entirely in dollars. The document revealed that TSFE received four serious offers for Wataniya, out of a total of eight non-binding purchase offers. It also said that the advisors for Wataniya are CI Capital as a financial advisor and Grant Thornton and Adsero as legal advisors. On another note, El-Said said that there is a plan to increase the government's investments in green projects by 50% by 2025, in line with the state's sustainable development agenda. She added that Egypt has made great strides in all economic sectors to bolster macroeconomic indicators and make it capable of accommodating shocks. She pointed out that the Country Programme, launched between Egypt and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on Tuesday, aims to promote Egypt's focus on some economic sectors, especially industry, agriculture, and small and medium enterprises, within the state's programme for economic structural reforms. The Minister explained that the government aims to increase the industrial sector's contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) to 15% during this fiscal year, compared to 11.7% during the last fiscal year. She stressed that Egypt always tries to adopt a "participatory approach", especially in the field of structural reforms, which was a main factor in paving the road for cooperation with the OECD to implement the reform programme in Egypt.
