EGYPT'S Ministry of Culture yesterday signed a contract with two firms specialised in project management and construction to work as project managers for the Grand Egyptian Museum currently under construction near the Giza Pyramids. "This museum will be an important cultural landmark in Egypt. Therefore, we decided to select two companies to monitor the building and to manage the museum's completion," Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni said yesterday. He added that the first and second phases of the project had finished and would be inaugurated within a few days at a huge festival. "The third phase will take 26 months to complete, and the museum will be ready for visitors as of mid-2012," the minister said. Hosni and Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass attended the signing ceremony with representatives of the two companies, namely the EHAF consulting engineers of Egypt and Hill International, a US consulting firm specialised in project management. Resembling a giant glass and stone arrowhead resting in the desert sand, the Grand Egyptian Museum sits two kilometres from the Pyramids at Giza. It is expected to cost around $600 million and will house more than 50,000 of the country's most prized artefacts, including the Tutankhamen collection.