(DNE Photo)
Ashraf Salman
The government is examining the announcement of several new free zones in Upper Egypt during a conference aimed at attracting local and foreign investments next September, said Minister of Investment Ashraf Salman.
Salman announced on Monday the formation of a ministerial committee headed by the Minister of Local Development Adel Labib, and which will include himself and Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, as well as relevant ministers and officials. The committee will follow up on the preparations of organising the investment conference in Upper Egypt.
“The conference will be held in Hurghada for several reasons, most important of which is the existence of equipped venues for holding such an event,” the minister said. There is a grand hall in one of the hotels that accommodates approximately 2,000 participants, in addition to three neighbouring hotels which are able to host the attendees.
“We aim for the organisation of this conference to be at the same organisational level of the Economic Summit held in Sharm El-Sheikh last March,” Salman said. His comments came during a meeting with the prime minister and a number of ministers on Monday morning to examine the preparations for an investment conference in Upper Egypt.
According to a cabinet statement, Salman mentioned inviting a number of governors from Upper Egypt and the Red Sea, to discuss preparations and review investment opportunities in each government. This is to prepare for presenting them during the investment conference.
According to the United Nations Development Programme’s statistics, Upper Egypt has the three poorest governorates in Egypt. Figures show that 60% of people in Assiut suffer from poverty, 58% of people in Qena, and 55% of people in Sohag.
