The Egyptian- Saudi Businessmen Association aims to invest EGP 1bn to cultivate 100,000 agricultural acres during the next two years.
Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ayman Abu Hadid met with a delegation from the association on Tuesday.
A committee will be formed to study the mechanism of cultivating the land with grains, corn and wheat to bridge the gap between food supply and demand.
The Ministry of Agriculture, the Businessmen Association, and the United Bank have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aiming to regulate the relationship between the three parties. The MOU stipulates that the ministry supply the agricultural land while the association provides investors to develop it. The United Bank acts as the local bank overseeing the financial operations.
In January, the association announced that it plans to attract 200 companies to invest a total of EGP 2bn in Egypt in 2014. The association will also establish an EGP 100m fund for small and medium enterprises.
The meeting was attended by Ahmed Sabry Darwish, the association’s secretary general, Sultan El-Duweish, a member of the board of directors, Mohamed Ashmawy, chairman of the United Bank, Abeer Elkholy, a representative of the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) in Cairo, and Magdy Amin, the association’s head of agricultural development.
