By Abdel Razek Al-Shuwekhi
The Federation of Chambers of Tourism held a press conference to announce the launch of an investment fund worth $1bn Tuesday. According to Ilhamy Zayat, Chairman of the Federation, the fund received offers from various Kuwaiti companies to contribute to its capital.
The federation established the fund at a minimum value of $1bn in its first phase, which will increase to $5bn throughout coming phases, as a means to rescue troubled hotel projects and tourism companies.
According to Zayat, the tourism ministry will contribute EGP 50m in capital to the fund as a form of symbolic participation.
Cairo Financial Holding (CHF) said that it won a tender offered by the federation to financial firms in the beginning of the year to manage the fund.
The fund forms a radical solution for the financial decline that the tourism sector has experienced over the past 20 years, which worsened sharply throughout the past 3 years.
The fund established two financial portfolios to engage with projects, one of which is located on the Sinai Peninsula and the other focusing on all other tourism areas in Egypt.
Zayat attributed the increase of portfolios established for projects in the Sinai to land laws in the governorate’s territories which prohibit foreign ownership.
