The cabinet approved during its weekly meeting an EGP 900m settlement between the New Urban Communities Authority (NUCA) and a “major company”, according to its official site. The unnamed company will pay the amount in installments.
The settlement’s approval will help the company proceed with projects that are expected to create 10,000 job opportunities. The unnamed company, according to the cabinet’s statement, is said to be investing EGP 3bn into development projects.
The cabinet said it hoped to send a “positive message” to all “honest investors”, whether Egyptians, Arabs or foreigners. The ministerial statement added that resolving legal disputes with investorsis a priority.
NUCA’s latest disputes was with the Sixth of October Development and Investment Company (SODIC) over the Eastown project land. Ashraf Farid, executive director of the operations department, said in February that the company intends to invest EGP 1bn in 2014.
Older disputes with real estate companies such as Orascom, Al-Futtaim and DAMAC Properties have been settled. Interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb said that this ends a series of disputes between NUCA and investors.
Daily News Egypt could not confirm, however, whether or not SODIC is the unnamed company.
Last week, NUCA’s board of directors has approved the leasing of industrial land on a usufruct basis for 30 years. The 30-year lease contracts will be renewable.
Electricity and oil
The cabinet also announced that it would allocate EGP 700m for maintenance and upgrades at power stations nationwide. Mehleb demanded that ministers, government entities, and facilities reduce their electricity consumption by 20%.
The cabinet previously stated that the government intends to import additional quantities of natural gas in order to improve the efficiency of transferring fuels to electricity stations and national grid. Mehleb said the ministry is taking steps to address the increasing blackouts plaguing the country.
On 26 March, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry announced that Egypt is studying the possibility of buying liquefied natural gas from Russia in order to meet the needs of the Egyptian market.
The electricity sector has been receiving wide financial attention from several international organisations. On Monday, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Ashraf El-Araby signed a KWD 30m loan agreement, approximately $106m, with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) to help finance the upgrade of the Assiut power plant. The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD) also contributed to the project with $200m.
The upgrades to the station, which will operate using traditional fuel resources, will help increase its production to 650 MW.
The Shabab and West Damietta power plants have also received $190m loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In order to increase energy production capacity to 2,250 MW. The Shabab and West Dameitta power plants upgrade project has received €205m from the European Investment Bank.
Six new petroleum projects agreements will be taken on, as well, the cabinet stated. The first is an exploration and production agreement in the Gabal El-Zeit area of the Gulf of Suez between the government and Dragon Oil. The second and third, with Dana Petroleum and Vega Petroleum, seek to explore and produce oil in the Gulf of Suez area and in the eastern desert, respectively.
The other three projects are the amendments of previous agreements conducted with Apache, Apache-Khalda cooperation, Khalda Petroleum Company, and Apaches West Kansas cooperation.
Construction
The cabinet announced the referral of the infrastructure and maintenance project in Cairo-Ismailia-Port Said desert road to the Ministry of Defence’s National Service Project Organization (NSPO).
In February, Ministry of Electricity and Energy (MOEE) announced that it has signed a cooperation protocol with the Egyptian Army Corps of Engineers to implement Egypt’s first electricity-generating nuclear plant.
The signed protocol stipulates that the corps work on rehabilitating the Dabaa site, located in the Matruh governorate, and the project’s infrastructure, which will include an administrative building, storage units, several workshop stations, the site’s garage, laboratories and water and electricity utilities.
The cabinet also approved a project to construct a drinking water and sanitation network for affordable housing in several Egyptian provinces including Fayoum, Minya, Assiut, Sohag, Qena, Aswan, Luxor and Masra Matruh. The project will be implemented over nine months.
The Egyptian cabinet also announced that EGP 28.59m would be set aside to rebuild the security directorate located in Daqahleya Governorate after a bomb exploded in December, reducing the building’s facade to rubble, killing 16 and injuring more than 100.
The cabinet allocated an additional EGP 35m for the remodelling and renovation of Dar El–Salam General Hospital Hermel. The total budget of the project is EGP 220m.
The cabinet’s last decision was to approve the implementation of the second phase of the Ministry of Housing’s project Ebny Baytak, or “Build your own house”, located in 6th of October city, with a budget of EGP 130m. The project aims to supply housing units for low-income youth.
